Updates to VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VMware ACE, VMware Fusion, VMware Server, VMware VIX API, VMware ESX, VMware ESXi resolve critical security issues

a. VMware Tools Local Privilege Escalation on Windows-based guest OS The VMware Tools Package provides support required for shared folders (HGFS) and other features. An input validation error is present in the Windows-based VMware HGFS.sys driver. Exploitation of this flaw might result in arbitrary code execution on the guest system by an unprivileged guest user. It doesn’t matter on what host the Windows guest OS is running, as this is a guest driver vulnerability and not a vulnerability on the host. The HGFS.sys driver is present in the guest operating system if the VMware Tools package is loaded. Even if the host has HGFS disabled and has no shared folders, Windows-based guests may be affected. This is regardless if a host supports HGFS. This issue could be mitigated by removing the VMware Tools package from Windows based guests. However this is not recommended as it would impact usability of the product. NOTE: Installing the new hosted release or ESX patches will not remediate the issue. The VMware Tools packages will need to be updated on each Windows-based guest followed by a reboot of the guest system. VMware would like to thank iDefense and Stephen Fewer of Harmony Security for reporting this issue to us. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2007-5671 to this issue. VMware Product Running Replace with/ Product Version on Apply Patch ============ ======== ======= ================= Workstation 6.x Windows not affected Workstation 6.x Linux not affected Workstation 5.x Windows 5.5.6 build 80404 or later Workstation 5.x Linux 5.5.6 build 80404 or later Player 2.x Windows not affected Player 2.x Linux not affected Player 1.x Windows 1.0.6 build 80404 or later Player 1.x Linux 1.0.6 build 80404 or later ACE 2.x Windows not affected ACE 1.x Windows 1.0.5 build 79846 or later Server 1.x Windows 1.0.5 build 80187 or later Server 1.x Linux 1.0.5 build 80187 or later Fusion 1.x Mac OS/X not affected ESXi 3.5 ESXi not affected ESX 3.5 ESX not affected ESX 3.0.2 ESX ESX-1004727 ESX 3.0.1 ESX ESX-1004186 ESX 2.5.5 ESX ESX 2.5.5 upgrade patch 5 or later ESX 2.5.4 ESX ESX 2.5.4 upgrade patch 16 or later