CVE-2007-1069 in Workstation
Summary
by MITRE
The memory management in VMware Workstation before 5.5.4 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (Windows virtual machine crash) by triggering certain general protection faults (GPF).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/02/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-1069 represents a critical memory management flaw in VMware Workstation versions prior to 5.5.4 that exposes Windows virtual machines to targeted denial of service attacks. This issue stems from insufficient validation of general protection faults within the virtualization layer, creating an exploitable condition that can be triggered by malicious actors to crash guest operating systems. The vulnerability specifically affects the hypervisor's ability to properly handle memory access violations that occur during normal operation, leading to system instability and potential complete virtual machine termination. The flaw exists in the virtual machine monitor's memory management subsystem where it fails to adequately process or recover from certain types of hardware-generated protection faults that are typically handled gracefully by native operating systems.
From a technical perspective, this vulnerability operates through the exploitation of improper exception handling mechanisms within VMware's virtualization infrastructure. When a Windows virtual machine encounters specific memory access patterns that trigger general protection faults, the VMware Workstation hypervisor fails to properly intercept and manage these exceptions, resulting in system crashes rather than graceful error recovery. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it allows attackers to remotely trigger conditions that cause the entire virtual machine to become unresponsive, effectively rendering the guest operating system inaccessible. This type of flaw falls under the CWE-119 weakness category, which encompasses memory safety issues related to improper handling of memory access violations and protection faults. The vulnerability demonstrates a classic case of inadequate input validation and error recovery mechanisms in virtualization software, where the hypervisor fails to maintain system stability when encountering unexpected but valid hardware exceptions.
The operational impact of CVE-2007-1069 extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass broader security implications for virtualized environments. Organizations relying on VMware Workstation for development, testing, or production workloads face significant risk of service interruption when this vulnerability is exploited, potentially affecting multiple virtual machines simultaneously if the attack vector is properly leveraged. The vulnerability can be exploited through various means including malicious code execution within the guest operating system or through carefully crafted memory operations that trigger the specific fault conditions. From an attacker's perspective, this represents a relatively low-effort method to achieve denial of service against virtualized Windows environments, making it particularly attractive for threat actors seeking to disrupt operations without requiring sophisticated exploitation techniques. The vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499 which covers network denial of service attacks, and T1566 which covers social engineering tactics that could be used to deliver payloads triggering this specific memory fault condition.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability primarily focus on immediate software updates and patches provided by VMware to address the memory management deficiencies in the hypervisor. System administrators should prioritize updating VMware Workstation to version 5.5.4 or later where the vulnerability has been resolved through improved exception handling and memory protection mechanisms. Additionally, network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit potential attack vectors that could be used to trigger the vulnerability, particularly in environments where untrusted users have access to virtual machine resources. Organizations should also consider implementing monitoring solutions that can detect unusual patterns of virtual machine crashes or system instability that may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date virtualization software and highlights the necessity of proper error handling and memory management in hypervisor implementations. Security teams should conduct regular vulnerability assessments of their virtualization infrastructure to identify and remediate similar issues that could potentially lead to system instability or unauthorized access.