VMSA-2019-0020

VMware Security Advisories

Advisory ID	VMSA-2019-0020
Advisory Severity	Moderate
CVSSv3 Range	6.5
Synopsis	VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion patches provide Hypervisor-Specific Mitigations for Denial-of-Service and Speculative-Execution Vulnerabilities (CVE-2018-12207, CVE-2019-11135)
Issue Date	2019-11-12
Updated On	2019-11-12 (Initial Advisory)
CVE(s)	CVE-2018-12207, CVE-2019-11135

1. Impacted Products

VMware ESXi
VMware Workstation
VMware Fusion

2. Introduction

Vulnerabilities have been disclosed which affect Intel processors:

CVE-2018-12207 - Machine Check Error on Page Size Change (MCEPSC)
CVE-2019-11135 - TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA)

VMware Hypervisor patches are available which provide mitigation options for both CVE-2018-12207 and CVE-2019-11135.

3a. Hypervisor-Specific Mitigations for Machine Check Error on Page Size Change (MCEPSC) Denial-of-Service vulnerability (CVE-2018-12207)

Description:

VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion patches include Hypervisor-Specific Mitigations for Machine Check Error on Page Size Change (MCEPSC). VMware has evaluated this issue to be in the Moderate severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 6.5.

Known Attack Vectors:

A malicious actor with local access to execute code in a virtual machine may be able to trigger a purple diagnostic screen or immediate reboot of the Hypervisor hosting the virtual machine, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.

Resolution:

To mitigate CVE-2018-12207 please refer to the 'Response Matrix' below. First apply all patches listed in the 'Fixed Version' column and then follow the instructions found in the KB article in the 'Additional Documentation' column for your respective product.

Workarounds:

None.

Additional Documentation:

Because the mitigations for CVE-2018-12207 may have a performance impact they are not enabled by default. After applying all patches from the 'Fixed Version' column below mitigation can be enabled by following the instructions found in the KB article in the 'Additional Documentation' column for the product. Performance impact data found in KB76050 should be reviewed prior to enabling this mitigation.

Notes:

None.

Acknowledgements:

None.

Response Matrix:

Security

Security Advisories

Product	Version	Running On	CVE Identifier	CVSSV3	Severity	Fixed Version	Workarounds	Additional Documents
ESXi	6.7	Any	CVE-2018-12207	6.5	Moderate	ESXi670-201911401-BG ESXi670-201911402-BG	None	KB59139
ESXi	6.5	Any	CVE-2018-12207	6.5	Moderate	ESXi650-201911401-BG ESXi650-201911402-BG	None	KB59139
ESXi	6.0	Any	CVE-2018-12207	6.5	Moderate	ESXi600-201911401-BG ESXi600-201911402-BG	None	KB59139
Workstation	15.x	Any	CVE-2018-12207	N/A	N/A	Unaffected	N/A	N/A
Fusion	11.x	Any	CVE-2018-12207	N/A	N/A	Unaffected	N/A	N/A

3b. Hypervisor-Specific Mitigations for TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA) Speculative-Execution vulnerability (CVE-2019-11135)

Description:

VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion patches include Hypervisor-Specific Mitigations for TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA). VMware has evaluated this issue to be in the Moderate severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 6.5.

Known Attack Vectors:

A malicious actor with local access to execute code in a virtual machine may be able to infer data otherwise protected by architectural mechanisms from another virtual machine or the hypervisor itself. This vulnerability is only applicable to Hypervisors utilizing 2nd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors (formerly known as Cascade Lake) microarchitecture.

Resolution:

To mitigate CVE-2019-11135 apply all patches listed in the 'Fixed Version' column found in the 'Response Matrix' below.

Workarounds:

None.

Additional Documentation:

None.

Notes:

None.

Acknowledgements:

None.

Response Matrix:

Product	Version	Running On	CVE Identifier	CVSSV3	Severity	Fixed Version	Workarounds	Additional Documents
ESXi	6.7	Any	CVE-2019-11135	6.5	Moderate	ESXi670-201911401-BG ESXi670-201911402-BG	None	None
ESXi	6.5	Any	CVE-2019-11135	6.5	Moderate	ESXi650-201911401-BG ESXi650-201911402-BG	None	None
ESXi	6.0	Any	CVE-2019-11135	6.5	Moderate	ESXi600-201911401-BG ESXi600-201911402-BG	None	None
Workstation	15.x	Any	CVE-2019-11135	6.5	Moderate	15.5.1	None	None
Fusion	11.x	Any	CVE-2019-11135	6.5	Moderate	11.5.1	None	None