CVE-2023-22002 in VM VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE • 04/18/2023
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are Prior to 6.1.44 and Prior to 7.0.8. 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 (scope change). Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.0 (Confidentiality impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/24/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-22002 represents a significant security flaw within Oracle VM VirtualBox's core component that affects versions prior to 6.1.44 and 7.0.8. This issue falls under the category of privilege escalation vulnerabilities where an attacker with high privileged access to the underlying infrastructure hosting VirtualBox can exploit this weakness to compromise the virtualization environment. The vulnerability's classification as easily exploitable indicates that the attack vector requires minimal technical sophistication, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrative access might be compromised or where insider threats exist. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.0 reflects the moderate to high severity impact, with the confidentiality impact rated as high, suggesting that successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all data accessible through the VirtualBox environment.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient access controls or privilege validation mechanisms within the VirtualBox core functionality. When an attacker with high privileges executes malicious code or leverages existing access within the hosting infrastructure, they can potentially bypass normal security boundaries that should protect the virtualization layer. This flaw operates at a fundamental level of the virtualization stack, allowing for unauthorized data access that extends beyond the immediate scope of the VirtualBox application itself. The scope change aspect of this vulnerability means that impacts may extend to other systems or applications that depend on or interact with the compromised VirtualBox environment. The attack requires local access with high privileges, which aligns with the CVSS vector showing AV:L (Adjacent attack vector) and PR:H (High privileges required), indicating that the attacker must already have elevated access to the system hosting the virtualization software.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial as it could enable attackers to access sensitive virtual machine data, potentially including confidential information stored within virtualized environments, virtual machine configurations, or system credentials. The complete access to all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data represents a severe threat to organizations relying on virtualization for their infrastructure, as it could lead to data breaches, system compromise, or disruption of virtualized services. The vulnerability's potential to affect additional products due to scope change suggests that organizations may face cascading impacts beyond just the VirtualBox installation itself. This could include compromised virtual machines that host critical applications, databases, or services, potentially leading to broader security incidents across the enterprise. The impact is particularly concerning for organizations that use VirtualBox for development, testing, or production environments where sensitive data might be processed within virtual machines.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigation strategies including upgrading to Oracle VM VirtualBox versions 6.1.44 or 7.0.8, which contain the necessary patches to address this vulnerability. System administrators should also conduct thorough access reviews to ensure that only authorized personnel maintain high privileged access to systems hosting VirtualBox installations. Additional monitoring should be implemented to detect anomalous access patterns or unauthorized activities within virtualization environments. The vulnerability's characteristics align with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and may map to ATT&CK techniques such as privilege escalation and credential access. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation to limit the potential impact of a successful attack and maintain detailed audit logs to track access to virtualization infrastructure. Regular security assessments of virtualization environments are essential to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by threat actors.