VMWare has shipped updates to Workstation, Fusion, and ESXi products to address an โimportantโ security vulnerability that could be weaponized by a threat actor to take control of affected systems.
The issue relates to a heap-overflow vulnerability โ tracked as CVE-2021-22045 (CVSS score: 7.7) โ that, if successfully exploited, results in the execution of arbitrary code. The company credited Jaanus Kรครคp, a security researcher with Clarified Security, for reporting the flaw.
โA malicious actor with access to a virtual machine with CD-ROM device emulation may be able to exploit this vulnerability in conjunction with other issues to execute code on the hypervisor from a virtual machine,โ VMware said in an advisory published on January 4. โSuccessful exploitation requires [a] CD image to be attached to the virtual machine.โ
The error affects ESXi versions 6.5, 6.7, and 7.0; Workstation versions 16.x; and Fusion versions 12.x, with the company yet to release a patch for ESXi 7.0. In the interim, the company is recommending users to disable all CD-ROM/DVD devices on all running virtual machines to prevent any potential exploitation โ
With VMwareโs virtualization solutions widely deployed across enterprises, itโs no surprise that its products have emerged as a popular choice for threat actors to stage a multitude of attacks against vulnerable networks. To mitigate the risk of infiltration, itโs recommended that organizations move quickly to apply the necessary updates.
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