CVE-2015-4813 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox component in Oracle Virtualization VirtualBox prior to 4.0.34, 4.1.42, 4.2.34, 4.3.32, and 5.0.8, when using a Windows guest, allows local users to affect availability via unknown vectors related to Core.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/23/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-4813 represents a critical availability threat within Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization software, specifically affecting Windows guest operating systems. This issue resides within the core components of the virtualization platform, making it particularly dangerous as it targets fundamental system operations rather than specific application functions. The vulnerability affects multiple version branches of VirtualBox including 4.0.x, 4.1.x, 4.2.x, 4.3.x, and 5.0.x releases, indicating a widespread impact across the product lineage. The unspecified nature of the exact attack vectors suggests that the flaw may manifest through various mechanisms within the core virtualization layer, potentially involving memory management, process handling, or hypervisor operations that govern guest system behavior.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from weaknesses in how VirtualBox handles core system resources when executing Windows guest operating systems. The issue manifests as a local privilege escalation scenario where unauthorized users or processes running within the virtual environment can potentially disrupt system availability. This typically involves exploitation of memory corruption vulnerabilities or resource exhaustion conditions that cause the virtualization layer to crash or become unresponsive. The core component designation indicates that the flaw operates at a fundamental level of the virtualization architecture, potentially affecting virtual machine startup processes, memory allocation routines, or interrupt handling mechanisms that are critical for system stability.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations relying on VirtualBox for virtualization infrastructure. Local users within a compromised virtual machine can potentially cause denial of service conditions that affect not only the individual guest system but may also impact host system stability and other virtual machines running on the same physical hardware. The availability impact means that attackers could render virtualized environments unusable, leading to business disruption, data access limitations, and potential cascading failures in virtualized infrastructure. This vulnerability particularly affects enterprise environments where VirtualBox is used for development, testing, or production workloads, as it could be exploited to create persistent availability issues.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including prompt patching of affected VirtualBox versions to the latest releases that address this core vulnerability. The recommended approach involves upgrading to VirtualBox versions 4.0.34, 4.1.42, 4.2.34, 4.3.32, or 5.0.8, depending on the current deployment. Additionally, implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit local user privileges within virtual environments can reduce exploitation risk. Security monitoring should focus on detecting unusual virtual machine behavior or system crashes that may indicate exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-119 which addresses memory corruption issues, and potentially maps to ATT&CK techniques involving privilege escalation and denial of service operations. Regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing of virtualization environments should be conducted to identify similar core component weaknesses that could compromise system availability and overall infrastructure integrity.