Vulnerabilities > CVE-2008-4278 - Information Exposure vulnerability in VMWare Virtualcenter

047910
CVSS 2.1 - LOW
Attack vector
LOCAL
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
PARTIAL
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
NONE
local
low complexity
vmware
microsoft
CWE-200
nessus
NVD
Published: 2008-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-11

Summary

VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 before Update 3 build 119838 on Windows displays a user's password in cleartext when the password contains unspecified special characters, which allows physically proximate attackers to steal the password.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Vmware
11
OS
Microsoft
1

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Subverting Environment Variable Values
    The attacker directly or indirectly modifies environment variables used by or controlling the target software. The attacker's goal is to cause the target software to deviate from its expected operation in a manner that benefits the attacker.
  • Footprinting
    An attacker engages in probing and exploration activity to identify constituents and properties of the target. Footprinting is a general term to describe a variety of information gathering techniques, often used by attackers in preparation for some attack. It consists of using tools to learn as much as possible about the composition, configuration, and security mechanisms of the targeted application, system or network. Information that might be collected during a footprinting effort could include open ports, applications and their versions, network topology, and similar information. While footprinting is not intended to be damaging (although certain activities, such as network scans, can sometimes cause disruptions to vulnerable applications inadvertently) it may often pave the way for more damaging attacks.
  • Exploiting Trust in Client (aka Make the Client Invisible)
    An attack of this type exploits a programs' vulnerabilities in client/server communication channel authentication and data integrity. It leverages the implicit trust a server places in the client, or more importantly, that which the server believes is the client. An attacker executes this type of attack by placing themselves in the communication channel between client and server such that communication directly to the server is possible where the server believes it is communicating only with a valid client. There are numerous variations of this type of attack.
  • Browser Fingerprinting
    An attacker carefully crafts small snippets of Java Script to efficiently detect the type of browser the potential victim is using. Many web-based attacks need prior knowledge of the web browser including the version of browser to ensure successful exploitation of a vulnerability. Having this knowledge allows an attacker to target the victim with attacks that specifically exploit known or zero day weaknesses in the type and version of the browser used by the victim. Automating this process via Java Script as a part of the same delivery system used to exploit the browser is considered more efficient as the attacker can supply a browser fingerprinting method and integrate it with exploit code, all contained in Java Script and in response to the same web page request by the browser.
  • Session Credential Falsification through Prediction
    This attack targets predictable session ID in order to gain privileges. The attacker can predict the session ID used during a transaction to perform spoofing and session hijacking.

Nessus

NASL familyVMware ESX Local Security Checks
NASL idVMWARE_VMSA-2008-0016.NASL
descriptiona. Privilege escalation on 64-bit guest operating systems VMware products emulate hardware functions, like CPU, Memory, and IO. A flaw in VMware
last seen2020-06-01
modified2020-06-02
plugin id40383
published2009-07-27
reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2009-2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/40383
titleVMSA-2008-0016 : VMware Hosted products, VirtualCenter Update 3 and patches for ESX and ESXi resolve multiple security issues
code
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were  
# extracted from VMware Security Advisory 2008-0016. 
# The text itself is copyright (C) VMware Inc.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(40383);
  script_version("1.24");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2018/08/06 14:03:16");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2008-3103", "CVE-2008-3104", "CVE-2008-3105", "CVE-2008-3106", "CVE-2008-3107", "CVE-2008-3108", "CVE-2008-3109", "CVE-2008-3110", "CVE-2008-3111", "CVE-2008-3112", "CVE-2008-3113", "CVE-2008-3114", "CVE-2008-3115", "CVE-2008-4278", "CVE-2008-4279");
  script_bugtraq_id(30140, 30141, 30142, 30143, 30146, 30147, 30148);
  script_xref(name:"VMSA", value:"2008-0016");

  script_name(english:"VMSA-2008-0016 : VMware Hosted products, VirtualCenter Update 3 and patches for ESX and ESXi resolve multiple security issues");
  script_summary(english:"Checks esxupdate output for the patches");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:
"The remote VMware ESXi / ESX host is missing one or more
security-related patches."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"a.  Privilege escalation on 64-bit guest operating systems

  VMware products emulate hardware functions, like CPU, Memory, and
  IO.  

  A flaw in VMware's CPU hardware emulation could allow the
  virtual CPU to jump to an incorrect memory address. Exploitation of
  this issue on the guest operating system does not lead to a
  compromise of the host system but could lead to a privilege
  escalation on guest operating system.  An attacker would need to
  have a user account on the guest operating system.

  Affected
  64-bit Windows and 64-bit FreeBSD guest operating systems and
  possibly other 64-bit operating systems. The issue does not
  affect the 64-bit versions of Linux guest operating systems.

  VMware would like to thank Derek Soeder for discovering
  this issue and working with us on its remediation.

  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)
  has assigned the name CVE-2008-4279 this issue.

 b. Update for VirtualCenter fixes a potential information disclosure

 This release resolves an issue where a user's password could be
 displayed in cleartext. When logging into VirtualCenter Server 2.0
 with Virtual Infrastructure Client 2.5, the user password might be
 displayed if it contains certain special characters. The dialog
 box displaying the password can appear in front or hidden behind
 other windows.

 To remediate this issue the VirtualCenter client installations must
 be updated after updating to VirtualCenter Update 3

 VMware would like to thank Mark Woollatt for reporting this issue
 to VMware.

 The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)
 has assigned the name CVE-2008-4278 to this issue.

 c. Update for VirtualCenter updates JRE to version 1.5.0_16

 Update for VirtualCenter updates the JRE package to version 1.5.0_16,
 which addresses multiple security issues that existed in the previous
 version of JRE.

 The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org)
 has assigned the names CVE-2008-3103, CVE-2008-3104, CVE-2008-3105,
 CVE-2008-3106, CVE-2008-3107, CVE-2008-3108, CVE-2008-3109,
 CVE-2008-3110, CVE-2008-3111, CVE-2008-3112, CVE-2008-3113,
 CVE-2008-3114, CVE-2008-3115 to the security issues fixed in
 JRE 1.5.0_16."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"http://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/2008/000044.html"
  );
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value:"Apply the missing patches.");
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C");
  script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:F/RL:OF/RC:C");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"Exploits are available");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_available", value:"true");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploit_framework_canvas", value:"true");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"canvas_package", value:'D2ExploitPack');
  script_cwe_id(16, 20, 119, 200, 264);

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.0.1");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.0.2");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.0.3");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:vmware:esx:3.5");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:vmware:esxi:3.5");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2008/10/03");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2009/07/27");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2018 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");
  script_family(english:"VMware ESX Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/VMware/release", "Host/VMware/version");
  script_require_ports("Host/VMware/esxupdate", "Host/VMware/esxcli_software_vibs");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("vmware_esx_packages.inc");


if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
if (!get_kb_item("Host/VMware/release")) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "VMware ESX / ESXi");
if (
  !get_kb_item("Host/VMware/esxcli_software_vibs") &&
  !get_kb_item("Host/VMware/esxupdate")
) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);


init_esx_check(date:"2008-10-03");
flag = 0;


if (esx_check(ver:"ESX 3.0.1", patch:"ESX-1006678")) flag++;

if (esx_check(ver:"ESX 3.0.2", patch:"ESX-1006361")) flag++;

if (
  esx_check(
    ver           : "ESX 3.0.3",
    patch         : "ESX303-200809401-SG",
    patch_updates : make_list("ESX303-201002201-UG", "ESX303-Update01")
  )
) flag++;

if (
  esx_check(
    ver           : "ESX 3.5.0",
    patch         : "ESX350-200809404-SG",
    patch_updates : make_list("ESX350-200911201-UG", "ESX350-201006401-SG", "ESX350-Update04", "ESX350-Update05", "ESX350-Update05a")
  )
) flag++;
if (
  esx_check(
    ver           : "ESX 3.5.0",
    patch         : "ESX350-200810215-UG",
    patch_updates : make_list("ESX350-201003403-SG", "ESX350-201203401-SG", "ESX350-Update04", "ESX350-Update05", "ESX350-Update05a")
  )
) flag++;

if (esx_check(ver:"ESXi 3.5.0", patch:"ESXe350-200809401-I-SG")) flag++;


if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_hole(port:0, extra:esx_report_get());
  else security_hole(0);
  exit(0);
}
else audit(AUDIT_HOST_NOT, "affected");

References