VMware Workstation: Untrusted library search path — GLSA 200502-18

VMware may load shared libraries from an untrusted, world-writable directory, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code.

Affected packages

app-emulation/vmware-workstation on all architectures
Affected versions < 4.5.2.8848-r5
Unaffected versions >= 4.5.2.8848-r5
revision >= 3.2.1.2242-r4

Background

VMware Workstation is a powerful virtual machine for developers and system administrators.

Description

Tavis Ormandy of the Gentoo Linux Security Audit Team has discovered that VMware Workstation searches for gdk-pixbuf loadable modules in an untrusted, world-writable directory.

Impact

A local attacker could create a malicious shared object that would be loaded by VMware, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running VMware.

Workaround

The system administrator may create the file /tmp/rrdharan to prevent malicious users from creating a directory at that location:

# touch /tmp/rrdharan

Resolution

All VMware Workstation users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --sync
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=app-emulation/vmware-workstation-3.2.1.2242-r4"

References

Release date
February 14, 2005

Latest revision
May 25, 2006: 03

Severity
normal

Exploitable
local

Bugzilla entries