CVE-2020-2905 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are Prior to 5.2.40, prior to 6.0.20 and prior to 6.1.6. 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 takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.0 Base Score 8.2 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/26/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-2905 represents a critical security flaw within Oracle VM VirtualBox's core component, specifically affecting versions prior to 5.2.40, 6.0.20, and 6.1.6. This vulnerability operates at a high privilege level requiring an attacker to already possess legitimate access to the infrastructure hosting the VirtualBox environment, making it particularly dangerous in scenarios where insider threats or compromised credentials exist. The CVSS 3.0 base score of 8.2 indicates a severe impact across confidentiality, integrity, and availability domains, reflecting the potential for complete system compromise. The attack vector is classified as local access (AV:L) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and high privileges required (PR:H), suggesting that while the exploit itself is relatively straightforward, it demands elevated access to the host system where VirtualBox operates.
This vulnerability falls under the CWE-20 category of "Improper Input Validation" and aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including T1059 for command and script injection, T1068 for exploit for privilege escalation, and T1566 for phishing with social engineering. The flaw allows for a complete takeover of the VirtualBox environment, potentially enabling attackers to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the VirtualBox process. The impact extends beyond just VirtualBox itself, as successful exploitation can compromise additional virtualized systems and applications running within the virtual environment. The security implications are particularly severe because VirtualBox often serves as a foundational component for development environments, testing labs, and enterprise virtualization infrastructures where multiple systems may be hosted on a single physical machine.
The operational impact of this vulnerability manifests in several critical areas including potential data exfiltration, system integrity compromise, and service availability disruption. Attackers could leverage this flaw to establish persistent access to virtualized environments, potentially accessing sensitive information stored in virtual machines, or using the compromised VirtualBox instance as a launch point for further attacks within the network. The confidentiality impact (C:H) suggests that sensitive data within virtual environments could be accessed, while the integrity impact (I:H) indicates that virtual machine configurations and data could be modified without detection. The availability impact (A:H) demonstrates the potential for complete service disruption, rendering virtualized environments unusable. Organizations utilizing older VirtualBox versions face significant risk exposure, particularly in environments where the software runs with elevated privileges or where multiple virtual machines containing sensitive data are hosted on a single physical system.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate patching of affected VirtualBox installations to versions 5.2.40, 6.0.20, or 6.1.6, respectively, depending on the current version in use. System administrators should implement strict access controls and privilege management to minimize the risk of unauthorized access to the host infrastructure where VirtualBox operates. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous behavior that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of affected VirtualBox versions within their infrastructure and implement regular security scanning processes to maintain awareness of potential exposure. The remediation process should also include reviewing and strengthening authentication mechanisms, implementing multi-factor authentication where possible, and establishing robust monitoring protocols for virtualization environments to detect and respond to suspicious activities that could indicate exploitation attempts.