Vulnerabilities > CVE-2019-5539 - Uncontrolled Search Path Element vulnerability in VMWare Horizon View Agent and Workstation
Attack vector
LOCAL Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
HIGH Integrity impact
HIGH Availability impact
HIGH Summary
VMware Workstation (15.x prior to 15.5.1) and Horizon View Agent (7.10.x prior to 7.10.1 and 7.5.x prior to 7.5.4) contain a DLL hijacking vulnerability due to insecure loading of a DLL by Cortado Thinprint. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow attackers with normal user privileges to escalate their privileges to administrator on a Windows machine where Workstation or View Agent is installed.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Leveraging/Manipulating Configuration File Search Paths This attack loads a malicious resource into a program's standard path used to bootstrap and/or provide contextual information for a program like a path variable or classpath. J2EE applications and other component based applications that are built from multiple binaries can have very long list of dependencies to execute. If one of these libraries and/or references is controllable by the attacker then application controls can be circumvented by the attacker. A standard UNIX path looks similar to this If the attacker modifies the path variable to point to a locale that includes malicious resources then the user unwittingly can execute commands on the attackers' behalf: This is a form of usurping control of the program and the attack can be done on the classpath, database resources, or any other resources built from compound parts. At runtime detection and blocking of this attack is nearly impossible, because the configuration allows execution.
- DLL Search Order Hijacking The attacker exploits the functionality of the Windows DLL loader where the process loading the DLL searches for the DLL to be loaded first in the same directory in which the process binary resides and then in other directories (e.g., System32). Exploitation of this preferential search order can allow an attacker to make the loading process load the attackers' rogue DLL rather than the legitimate DLL. For instance, an attacker with access to the file system may place a malicious ntshrui.dll in the C:\Windows directory. This DLL normally resides in the System32 folder. Process explorer.exe which also resides in C:\Windows, upon trying to load the ntshrui.dll from the System32 folder will actually load the DLL supplied by the attacker simply because of the preferential search order. Since the attacker has placed its malicious ntshrui.dll in the same directory as the loading explorer.exe process, the DLL supplied by the attacker will be found first and thus loaded in lieu of the legitimate DLL. Since explorer.exe is loaded during the boot cycle, the attackers' malware is guaranteed to execute. This attack can be leveraged with many different DLLs and with many different loading processes. No forensic trails are left in the system's registry or file system that an incorrect DLL had been loaded.
Nessus
NASL family Windows NASL id VMWARE_HORIZON_VIEW_AGENT_VMSA-2019-0023.NASL description The VMware Horizon View Agent installed on the remote host is 7.x prior to 7.5.4, 7.10.1, or 7.11.0. It is, therefore, affected by a DLL hijacking vulnerability due to insecure loading of a DLL by Cortado Thinprint. An authenticated, local attacker with normal user privileges can exploit this to escalate their privileges to administrator on a Windows machine where View Agent is installed. Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 132753 published 2020-01-10 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/132753 title VMware Horizon View Agent 7.x < 7.5.4 / 7.10.1 / 7.11.0 Privilege Escalation (VMSA-2019-0023) code # # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc. # include('compat.inc'); if (description) { script_id(132753); script_version("1.3"); script_cvs_date("Date: 2020/01/13"); script_cve_id("CVE-2019-5539"); script_xref(name:"VMSA", value:"2019-0023"); script_xref(name:"IAVB", value:"2020-B-0001"); script_name(english:"VMware Horizon View Agent 7.x < 7.5.4 / 7.10.1 / 7.11.0 Privilege Escalation (VMSA-2019-0023)"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value: "The remote host has a virtual desktop agent installed that is affected by a privilege escalation vulnerability."); script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value: "The VMware Horizon View Agent installed on the remote host is 7.x prior to 7.5.4, 7.10.1, or 7.11.0. It is, therefore, affected by a DLL hijacking vulnerability due to insecure loading of a DLL by Cortado Thinprint. An authenticated, local attacker with normal user privileges can exploit this to escalate their privileges to administrator on a Windows machine where View Agent is installed. Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number."); script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2019-0023.html"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value: "Upgrade to VMware Horizon View Agent 7.5.4, 7.10.1, 7.11.0 or later."); script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P"); script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C"); script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"); script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2019-5539"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2019/12/20"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2019/12/20"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2020/01/10"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:vmware:horizon_view_agent"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"stig_severity", value:"I"); script_end_attributes(); script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO); script_family(english:"Windows"); script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof."); script_dependencies("vmware_view_agent_detect.nasl"); script_require_keys("installed_sw/VMware View Agent"); exit(0); } include('vcf.inc'); app = 'VMware View Agent'; app_info = vcf::get_app_info(app:app, win_local:TRUE); constraints = [ { 'min_version': '7.0', 'fixed_version' : '7.5.4' }, { 'min_version': '7.6', 'fixed_version' : '7.10.1' } ]; vcf::check_version_and_report(app_info:app_info, constraints:constraints, severity:SECURITY_WARNING);NASL family General NASL id VMWARE_WORKSTATION_VMSA_2019_0023.NASL description The version of VMware Workstation installed on the remote Windows host is 15.0.x prior to 15.5.1. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability. Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 132417 published 2019-12-27 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/132417 title VMware Workstation 15.0.x < 15.5.1 Vulnerability (VMSA-2019-0023) code # # (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc. # include('compat.inc'); if (description) { script_id(132417); script_version("1.3"); script_cvs_date("Date: 2020/01/03"); script_cve_id("CVE-2019-5539"); script_xref(name:"VMSA", value:"2019-0023"); script_name(english:"VMware Workstation 15.0.x < 15.5.1 Vulnerability (VMSA-2019-0023)"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"synopsis", value: "A virtualization application installed on the remote Windows host is affected by a vulnerability"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"description", value: "The version of VMware Workstation installed on the remote Windows host is 15.0.x prior to 15.5.1. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability. Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number."); script_set_attribute(attribute:"see_also", value:"https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2019-0023.html"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"solution", value: "Update to VMware Workstation version 15.5.1, or later."); script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P"); script_set_cvss_temporal_vector("CVSS2#E:U/RL:OF/RC:C"); script_set_cvss3_base_vector("CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"); script_set_cvss3_temporal_vector("CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cvss_score_source", value:"CVE-2019-5539"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"exploitability_ease", value:"No known exploits are available"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"vuln_publication_date", value:"2019/12/20"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2019/12/20"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2019/12/27"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local"); script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/a:vmware:workstation"); script_end_attributes(); script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO); script_family(english:"General"); script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2019-2020 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof."); script_dependencies("vmware_workstation_detect.nasl"); script_require_keys("SMB/Registry/Enumerated", "installed_sw/VMware Workstation"); exit(0); } include('vcf.inc'); get_kb_item_or_exit('SMB/Registry/Enumerated'); app_info = vcf::get_app_info(app:'VMware Workstation', win_local:TRUE); constraints = [ { 'min_version' : '15.0', 'fixed_version' : '15.5.1' } ]; vcf::check_version_and_report(app_info:app_info, constraints:constraints, severity:SECURITY_WARNING);