VMrc vulnerable to format string attacks. Exploitation of this issue may lead to arbitrary code execution on the system where VMrc is installed. Digital Security Research Group [DSecRG] Advisory DSECRG-09-053: http://www.dsecrg.com/pages/vul/show.php?id=153 Application: VMware Remoute Console Version: e.x.p build-158248 Vendor URL: http://vmware.com Bugs: Format String Vulnerabilitys Exploits: YES (PoC) Reported: 07.08.2009 Vendor response: 13.08.2009 Date of Public Advisory: 09.04.2010 CVE: CVE-2009-3732 VSA: VMSA-2010-0007 Authors: Alexey Sintsov of Digital Security Research Group [DSecRG] (research [at] dsecrg [dot] com) Description ******** VMware Remote Console Plug-in can be installed from WEB interface of VMware vSphere. This software contains of ActiveX objects and executable files for remote console of guest OS. VMrc vulnerable to format string attacks. Exploitation of this issue may lead to arbitrary code execution on the system where VMrc is installed. Details ******* Attacker can make shortcut with special parameters for vmware-vmrc.exe and bad MOID or HOST parameter. If a user try to use this shortcut to connect to vSphere server he will see next message box: "Error opening the remote virtual machine HOST\MOID: The object has already been deleted or has not been completely created." If user name or password will be incorrect the user also gets error message box. Parameters HOST and MOID are addicted to format injection. Also this vuln. can be exploited remotely by special crafted html page. ActiveX element: clsid:B94C2238-346E-4C5E-9B36-8CC627F35574 Attacker can rewrite stack data and may be it's possible to code execution. Example(shortcut): ***************** C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\VMware Remote Console Plug-in>vmware-vmrc.exe -u vmware_user -h HOST -M AAAA:%x.%x.%x.%x.:BBBB VMDlg::ShowDialog: Error opening the remote virtual machine HOST\AAAA:3455600.78138a94.100012b2.28e27b0.:BBBB: Example(ActiveX): **************** objectVMRC.connect ("host" ,"username" ,"password", "%x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x" ,"X" ,2); Fix Information *************** VMware has released the following patch for ESX 4.0: ESX400-200911223-UG Also this issue solved in vCenter 4.0 Update 1 References ********** http://dsecrg.com/pages/vul/show.php?id=153 http://lists.vmware.com/pipermail/security-announce/2010/000090.html About ***** Digital Security is leading IT security company in Russia, providing information security consulting, audit and penetration testing services, risk analysis and ISMS-related services and certification for ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and PCI DSS standards. Digital Security Research Group focuses on web application and database security problems with vulnerability reports, advisories and whitepapers posted regularly on our website. Contact: research [at] dsecrg [dot] com http://www.dsecrg.com