CVE-2019-2876 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 5.2.32 and prior to 6.0.10. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows low privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized ability to cause a partial denial of service (partial DOS) of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 3.3 (Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/07/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-2876 resides within Oracle VM VirtualBox's Core subcomponent, representing a significant security weakness that affects versions prior to 5.2.32 and 6.0.10. This flaw operates within the virtualization environment where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes, creating a potential attack vector for adversaries who have already established a foothold on the underlying infrastructure. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that the attack surface is relatively accessible to threat actors who possess low-privileged access to the system hosting the virtualization platform. The CVSS 3.0 scoring system assigns a base score of 3.3, reflecting the availability impact category with a low attack complexity and low privilege requirements, making this vulnerability particularly concerning for organizations relying on virtualized environments.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and potentially improper access controls within the VirtualBox Core component, allowing an authenticated attacker with local system access to manipulate the virtualization environment. The vulnerability specifically enables a partial denial of service condition, meaning that successful exploitation could disrupt the availability of VirtualBox services without completely compromising the entire system. This partial DOS capability manifests through unauthorized manipulation of virtual machine operations, potentially causing virtual machines to crash or become unresponsive while maintaining the underlying host system's operational integrity. The attack vector requires local access, indicating that the threat actor must already have login credentials or system-level access to the machine where VirtualBox operates, but does not require elevated privileges beyond what is already available.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates substantial risk for organizations utilizing Oracle VM VirtualBox for their virtualization needs, particularly in environments where multiple users or processes share the same host system. The partial denial of service condition can lead to significant productivity losses and service interruptions when virtual machines become unavailable, potentially affecting development environments, testing platforms, or production virtualized applications. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond immediate operational disruption as it may provide attackers with opportunities to establish persistent access or escalate privileges within the virtualized environment. Organizations running affected versions face increased risk of service degradation and potential data unavailability, especially in scenarios where virtual machines are critical to business operations or where multiple virtual environments are hosted on the same physical infrastructure.
Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation by upgrading to Oracle VM VirtualBox versions 5.2.32 or 6.0.10, which contain the necessary patches to address this vulnerability. Security teams should implement comprehensive monitoring of virtualization environments to detect potential exploitation attempts and establish baseline configurations that limit unnecessary access to VirtualBox components. Network segmentation and least privilege access controls should be enforced to minimize the potential impact of local access compromises, while regular security assessments of virtualization platforms should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities. The mitigation strategy must also include comprehensive incident response planning for virtualization environments, ensuring that security teams are prepared to address potential exploitation of similar vulnerabilities. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-20, representing a weakness in input validation, and may facilitate techniques described in the ATT&CK framework under persistence and privilege escalation tactics, particularly those involving local system access and virtualization environment manipulation.