CVE-2014-2486 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox component in Oracle Virtualization VirtualBox before 3.2.24, 4.0.26, 4.1.34, 4.2.26, and 4.3.12 allows local users to affect integrity and availability via unknown vectors related to Core, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-2477.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/09/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-2486 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization software that affects multiple version branches including 3.2.x, 4.0.x, 4.1.x, 4.2.x, and 4.3.x series. This issue resides within the Core component of VirtualBox and specifically impacts the integrity and availability aspects of the virtualization environment, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise deployments where virtual machines serve as foundational infrastructure elements. The vulnerability's classification as unspecified means that the exact technical details of the flaw were not publicly disclosed at the time of the initial reporting, though it was confirmed to be distinct from CVE-2014-2477 which indicates a separate attack surface within the same product.
The technical nature of this vulnerability allows local users to manipulate the virtualization environment in ways that compromise data integrity and system availability, potentially enabling attackers who have gained local access to the host system to disrupt virtual machine operations or corrupt virtual machine data. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of privilege escalation and data integrity attacks, where the attacker leverages their local presence to affect the core functionality of the virtualization platform. The Core component of VirtualBox is responsible for fundamental operations including memory management, processor scheduling, and system resource allocation, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to gain elevated privileges or cause system-wide disruptions.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations relying on VirtualBox for their virtualization needs, particularly in environments where multiple virtual machines operate concurrently and where local user access is not strictly controlled. The impact extends beyond simple availability disruption to include potential data corruption that could affect virtual machine images, configuration files, and the overall stability of the virtualized environment. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to cause denial of service conditions, corrupt virtual machine state information, or potentially escalate their privileges within the host system to gain broader access to network resources. The vulnerability's presence in multiple version branches indicates that it was a persistent flaw that required patches across several major releases of the software.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including applying the relevant security patches released by Oracle for the affected VirtualBox versions, implementing strict access controls to limit local user privileges on systems running VirtualBox, and monitoring for suspicious activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's classification as affecting integrity and availability aligns with attack patterns documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under privilege escalation and denial of service techniques. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing network segmentation and monitoring solutions to detect potential exploitation attempts and maintain detailed audit logs of virtual machine operations to identify any unauthorized modifications to virtual machine configurations or data. The CWE database categorizes this type of vulnerability under weaknesses related to improper privilege management and inadequate input validation, emphasizing the need for robust access control mechanisms within virtualization platforms.