CVE-2021-2145 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE • 04/23/2021
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). The supported version that is affected is Prior to 6.1.20. Difficult to exploit 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 3.1 Base Score 7.5 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/27/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2021-2145 resides within Oracle VM VirtualBox's core component and represents a critical security flaw affecting versions prior to 6.1.20. This vulnerability operates at a privileged level within the virtualization environment, requiring an attacker to already possess legitimate access to the host infrastructure where VirtualBox operates. The attack vector is classified as local access with high complexity requirements, indicating that exploitation demands significant technical expertise and access to system resources that would typically be restricted to authorized users. The CVSS score of 7.5 reflects the severity of potential impacts including complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability across the affected system.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient access controls and privilege management within the VirtualBox core functionality. Attackers with high-privileged access can leverage this flaw to escalate their control over the virtualization platform, potentially gaining complete administrative privileges over the entire VirtualBox environment. This represents a significant concern for organizations that rely heavily on virtualization technologies, as the compromise of a single virtual machine could translate into broader system infiltration. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond just VirtualBox itself, as successful exploitation can create cascading effects that compromise other virtualized applications and systems within the same infrastructure.
The operational implications of this vulnerability are particularly concerning for enterprise environments where virtualization is extensively utilized for server consolidation, development testing, and application isolation. Organizations that maintain virtualized environments with multiple guest operating systems running on a single host system face heightened risk, as exploitation could enable attackers to access all virtual machines managed by the compromised VirtualBox instance. The availability impact is substantial, as successful exploitation could render the entire virtualization platform unusable or cause complete system outages. Furthermore, the integrity compromise could allow attackers to modify or corrupt virtual machine configurations, guest operating systems, or host system data without detection.
Security professionals should prioritize patch management for this vulnerability, ensuring all affected VirtualBox installations are updated to version 6.1.20 or later. Organizations should implement additional monitoring controls to detect unusual access patterns or privilege escalation attempts within their virtualization environments. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control issues, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1068, which covers local privilege escalation. Network segmentation and least privilege access controls should be reinforced around virtualization hosts, and regular security assessments should verify that virtualization environments maintain appropriate security postures. Additional mitigations include implementing host-based intrusion detection systems and establishing strict access controls for administrative accounts that interact with virtualization platforms.