CVE-2008-1340 in Player
Summary
by MITRE
Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) in VMware Workstation 6.0.x before 6.0.3, VMware Player 2.0.x before 2.0.3, and VMware ACE 2.0.x before 2.0.1 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (host OS crash) via crafted VMCI calls that trigger "memory exhaustion and memory corruption."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/08/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-1340 represents a critical flaw in VMware's Virtual Machine Communication Interface implementation across multiple products including VMware Workstation 6.0.x, VMware Player 2.0.x, and VMware ACE 2.0.x versions prior to their respective security patches. This issue stems from inadequate input validation and memory management within the VMCI subsystem, which serves as the communication layer between virtual machines and the host operating system. The vulnerability operates at a fundamental level where maliciously crafted VMCI calls can exploit memory handling mechanisms to cause system instability. The flaw manifests when the system processes specially constructed VMCI messages that trigger memory allocation patterns leading to exhaustion and subsequent corruption of critical system memory structures.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability leverages the inherent design of VMCI to establish communication channels between guest and host environments, where insufficient bounds checking allows attackers to manipulate memory allocation requests. When processed, these malformed VMCI calls cause the virtualization layer to allocate excessive memory resources or corrupt existing memory segments, ultimately leading to system crashes. The memory exhaustion aspect occurs when the system allocates memory in a way that depletes available resources, while memory corruption results from writing beyond allocated boundaries or improper memory deallocation. This dual nature of the vulnerability makes it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited to not only cause service disruption but potentially lead to arbitrary code execution in some scenarios.
The operational impact of CVE-2008-1340 extends beyond simple denial of service conditions as it can result in complete host system crashes, requiring manual restart and potentially leading to data loss or system instability. Organizations utilizing these vulnerable VMware products face significant risks including business interruption, potential data corruption, and compromised virtualization environments. The vulnerability affects the core virtualization infrastructure, making it particularly concerning for enterprise environments where virtual machines are extensively used for development, testing, and production workloads. Attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely through malicious VMCI messages, potentially compromising the stability of entire virtualization platforms.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability include immediate patching of affected VMware products to versions 6.0.3, 2.0.3, and 2.0.1 respectively, which contain proper input validation and memory management fixes. Organizations should also implement network segmentation to limit VMCI communication between untrusted virtual machines and host systems. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-129 Input Validation and CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write categories, representing weaknesses in input validation and memory safety. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1499.004 Endpoint Denial of Service and T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter, as attackers can leverage the instability to execute further malicious activities. System administrators should also consider implementing monitoring solutions to detect anomalous VMCI traffic patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts, while maintaining regular vulnerability assessments to identify similar issues in other virtualization components.