CVE-2017-10238 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox component of Oracle Virtualization (subcomponent: Core). The supported version that is affected is Prior to 5.1.24. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. While the vulnerability is in Oracle VM VirtualBox, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized ability to cause a hang or frequently repeatable crash (complete DOS) of Oracle VM VirtualBox as well as unauthorized update, insert or delete access to some of Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data and unauthorized read access to a subset of Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 7.3 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/03/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-10238 resides within Oracle VM VirtualBox's Core subcomponent, representing a critical security flaw that affects versions prior to 5.1.24. This vulnerability operates within the realm of virtualization infrastructure and demonstrates how flaws in hypervisor components can create cascading security risks across entire virtualized environments. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that attackers with high privileged access to the underlying infrastructure can leverage this weakness to compromise the virtualization platform itself. The attack vector requires local access with elevated privileges, suggesting that the vulnerability may be exploited through compromised administrative accounts or insider threats rather than external attacks. This characteristic places the vulnerability within the scope of privilege escalation attacks and highlights the importance of maintaining strict access controls and monitoring administrative activities within virtualized environments.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through a combination of confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts that align with the CVSS 3.0 scoring system. The flaw allows attackers to achieve complete denial of service conditions by causing frequent crashes or hangs within the VirtualBox environment, effectively rendering the virtualization platform unusable for legitimate operations. Additionally, the vulnerability enables unauthorized modifications to data within the virtualization platform, including the ability to insert, update, or delete information that the system can access. The compromise of read access to specific subsets of data within the VirtualBox environment represents a significant information disclosure threat that could expose sensitive configuration details, virtual machine settings, or other privileged information. This multi-faceted impact demonstrates how a single vulnerability can create multiple attack surfaces within the virtualization infrastructure and emphasizes the interconnected nature of virtualization security components.
The operational impact of CVE-2017-10238 extends beyond the immediate compromise of the VirtualBox platform itself, potentially affecting multiple dependent systems and applications that rely on virtualization services. Organizations utilizing VirtualBox for development, testing, or production environments face significant risks when this vulnerability remains unpatched, as attackers could use it to gain persistent access to virtualized resources and potentially escalate their privileges to compromise underlying physical infrastructure. The vulnerability's ability to cause repeated crashes and system instability creates operational disruptions that can impact business continuity and disaster recovery procedures. Furthermore, the unauthorized data modification capabilities pose risks to configuration management and audit trails, potentially compromising compliance requirements and forensic investigation capabilities. The CVSS score of 7.3 indicates a moderate to high severity level that requires immediate attention from security teams and system administrators.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize the immediate deployment of Oracle's security patches and updates, specifically targeting VirtualBox versions 5.1.24 and later. Organizations should implement strict access controls and monitoring of administrative accounts to reduce the risk of privilege escalation attacks that could exploit this vulnerability. Network segmentation and least privilege principles should be enforced to limit potential attack surfaces and reduce the impact of successful exploitation attempts. Security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected VirtualBox installations within their environments and establish monitoring procedures to detect unusual system behavior that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's characteristics align with ATT&CK framework techniques related to privilege escalation and defense evasion, making it important for security operations centers to incorporate specific detection rules for this threat. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to verify the effectiveness of implemented mitigations and identify additional vulnerabilities that may exist within virtualization environments.