CVE-2008-3698 in Player
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the OpenProcess function in VMware Workstation 5.5.x before 5.5.8 build 108000, VMware Workstation 6.0.x before 6.0.5 build 109488, VMware Player 1.x before 1.0.8 build 108000, VMware Player 2.x before 2.0.5 build 109488, VMware ACE 1.x before 1.0.7 build 108880, VMware ACE 2.x before 2.0.5 build 109488, and VMware Server before 1.0.7 build 108231 on Windows allows local host OS users to gain privileges on the host OS via unknown vectors.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/16/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2008-3698 represents a critical privilege escalation issue within VMware's virtualization products that affects multiple versions across different VMware offerings. This unspecified weakness exists within the OpenProcess function implementation in VMware Workstation, Player, ACE, and Server products running on Windows operating systems. The vulnerability specifically impacts versions prior to their respective secure build releases, creating a persistent security risk for users who have not updated their virtualization software. The issue manifests when local host OS users can exploit this flaw to elevate their privileges on the underlying host operating system, potentially gaining unauthorized administrative access to the physical machine running the virtual environment.
The technical nature of this vulnerability falls under the category of privilege escalation attacks where a local user within a guest virtual machine can leverage a flaw in the VMware hypervisor's process management functions to execute code with elevated privileges on the host system. The OpenProcess function typically handles process access control and permissions, but in this case, it appears to contain improper validation or access control mechanisms that allow unauthorized privilege elevation. This type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it bridges the isolation boundary between guest and host environments, undermining the fundamental security model of virtualization. The unspecified nature of the exact exploitation vectors suggests that multiple attack paths may exist, making the vulnerability more difficult to fully characterize and defend against, while also indicating that the flaw may involve complex interactions between multiple system components.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for organizations relying on VMware virtualization solutions, as it allows local users to potentially gain full administrative control over the host system. The impact extends beyond individual virtual machines to potentially compromise the entire physical infrastructure hosting multiple virtual environments. Attackers could use this privilege escalation to install persistent backdoors, access sensitive data stored on the host system, modify virtual machine configurations, or even use the compromised host as a launch point for further attacks within the network. The vulnerability affects a wide range of VMware products and versions, making it particularly concerning for organizations with heterogeneous virtualization environments that may have different VMware products deployed across their infrastructure.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including privilege escalation and defense evasion, as attackers can leverage the host system's elevated privileges to maintain persistence and avoid detection. From a CWE perspective, this vulnerability likely maps to CWE-264, which covers permissions, privileges, and access control issues, or potentially CWE-787, representing out-of-bounds write conditions that could occur during process access control manipulation. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including mandatory updates to the affected VMware products to the latest secure builds, along with network segmentation and monitoring for suspicious privilege escalation activities. Additionally, security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments across all virtualization environments and implement strict access controls for virtual machine users to minimize the attack surface and reduce the potential impact of such privilege escalation attacks.