CVE-2019-2552 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox component of Oracle Virtualization (subcomponent: Core). Supported versions that are affected are prior to 5.2.24 and prior to 6.0.2. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows low 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 takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 8.8 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/28/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-2552 resides within Oracle VM VirtualBox's Core subcomponent, representing a critical security flaw that affects organizations relying on virtualization infrastructure. This vulnerability operates within the broader context of virtual machine management systems where the integrity of the hypervisor directly impacts the security posture of all virtualized environments. The affected versions include Oracle VM VirtualBox prior to 5.2.24 and 6.0.2, indicating that a significant portion of the user base was exposed to potential compromise. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable underscores the severity of the threat landscape, particularly given that it requires only low privileged access to the host infrastructure where VirtualBox operates. This accessibility factor makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where multiple users or services have varying levels of access to the underlying physical infrastructure.
The technical flaw manifests in the Core component of Oracle VM VirtualBox, where insufficient input validation and memory handling mechanisms create opportunities for exploitation. The vulnerability's CVSS 3.0 score of 8.8 reflects the high impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability domains, with a vector indicating local attack accessibility, low attack complexity, and the requirement for local privileges. This attack vector places the vulnerability within the scope of attackers who can establish a foothold on the host system, potentially through legitimate administrative access or through other means of gaining local privileges. The vulnerability's potential to allow a successful compromise of Oracle VM VirtualBox means that attackers could gain complete control over the virtualization environment, effectively undermining the security isolation that virtual machines are designed to provide.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond the immediate compromise of the VirtualBox application itself. Given that VirtualBox is widely deployed across enterprise environments for development, testing, and production workloads, a successful exploitation could result in widespread compromise of virtualized resources. The CVSS scoring indicates that this vulnerability could lead to complete system takeover, potentially allowing attackers to access sensitive data, modify virtual machine configurations, or establish persistent access points within the virtualized environment. The security implications are further amplified by the potential for additional products to be impacted, as virtualization platforms often integrate with other security tools, monitoring systems, and enterprise applications. This cascading effect means that compromise of a single VirtualBox instance could potentially expose broader enterprise infrastructure.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including the deployment of patches for Oracle VM VirtualBox versions 5.2.24 and 6.0.2, which address the underlying vulnerability in the Core component. The mitigation approach should also include enhanced monitoring of local system access and privilege escalation attempts, as well as network segmentation to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation. Security teams should conduct comprehensive assessments of their virtualization environments to identify any systems running vulnerable versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox and prioritize patching efforts accordingly. The vulnerability's characteristics align with ATT&CK techniques related to privilege escalation and credential access, making it particularly relevant for organizations implementing threat hunting and incident response procedures. Additionally, the vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date virtualization software and implementing proper access controls to prevent unauthorized local access to systems running virtualization platforms. This vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of virtualization security and the potential for hypervisor-level compromises to undermine the security of entire virtualized environments, making it essential for organizations to maintain robust security practices around their virtualization infrastructure.