CVE-2014-2489 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 confidentiality, integrity, and availability via unknown vectors related to Core.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/09/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-2489 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle VM VirtualBox's core architecture that affects multiple versions of the virtualization platform. This unspecified weakness exists within the Oracle Virtualization VirtualBox component and manifests in a way that permits local attackers to compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected systems. The vulnerability's impact spans across several version ranges including 3.2.24, 4.0.26, 4.1.34, 4.2.26, and 4.3.12, indicating a widespread issue that required immediate attention across the virtualization ecosystem. The core nature of this vulnerability suggests it operates at a fundamental level within the virtualization software, potentially affecting how the hypervisor manages system resources and handles security boundaries between host and guest operating systems.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability appears to involve core components of VirtualBox's architecture that handle memory management, process isolation, or system call handling. As a local privilege escalation vector, the flaw allows attackers who already have access to the system to potentially elevate their privileges or manipulate the virtualization environment in ways that could compromise the entire host system. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors indicates that the vulnerability could manifest through multiple pathways within the core subsystems, making it particularly dangerous as defenders cannot easily predict or defend against all potential exploitation methods. This type of vulnerability often relates to memory corruption issues, improper access controls, or flaws in privilege handling mechanisms that are foundational to the virtualization platform's operation.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations that rely heavily on virtualized environments for their computing infrastructure. The ability to compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability simultaneously creates a multi-dimensional threat that could lead to complete system compromise, data theft, or service disruption. Attackers could potentially use this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data stored within virtual machines, modify system configurations, or even cause system crashes that would result in denial of service conditions. The local nature of the attack means that the threat is more accessible to insiders or attackers who have already gained some level of system access, making it particularly dangerous in environments where multiple users share the same physical hardware. Organizations using older versions of VirtualBox would be particularly vulnerable as these systems would not have received the necessary security patches to address this core architecture flaw.
The remediation strategy for CVE-2014-2489 involves immediate deployment of the vendor-provided security patches that address the core architecture issues within VirtualBox. Organizations should prioritize updating to the patched versions 3.2.24, 4.0.26, 4.1.34, 4.2.26, and 4.3.12, as these releases contain the necessary fixes for the core vulnerability. System administrators should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all systems running affected versions of VirtualBox and ensure that updates are applied across the entire infrastructure. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and access controls can help limit the potential impact of such vulnerabilities by reducing the attack surface available to local attackers. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-119 which deals with memory corruption issues, and may also relate to ATT&CK techniques involving privilege escalation and defense evasion through exploitation of core system components. Regular security monitoring and vulnerability management processes should be enhanced to detect similar architecture-level flaws in other virtualization platforms and ensure that all components receive timely security updates to prevent similar incidents.