Products:
VMware ACE
VMware Player
VMware Workstation

Details:
Summary
On Windows hosts, if you have configured a VMware host-to-guest shared folder, it is possible for a program running in the guest to gain access to the host’s complete file system and create or modify executable files in sensitive locations.

Relevant Releases
Windows hosted versions of:

• VMware Workstation 6.0.2 and earlier
• VMware Workstation 5.5.4 and earlier
• VMware Player 2.0.2 and earlier
• VMware Player 1.0.4 and earlier
• VMware ACE 2.0.2 and earlier
• VMware ACE 1.0.2 and earlier

Note: The following VMware products are not affected:

• VMware Server is not affected because it does not use shared folders.
• No versions of ESX Server, including ESX Server 3i, are affected by this vulnerability. Because ESX Server is based on a bare-metal hypervisor architecture, not a hosted architecture, it does not include any shared folder abilities.
• VMware Fusion and Linux-hosted VMware products are unaffected.

Problem Description
The following description is from the Core Security Technologies advisory at http://www.coresecurity.com/?action=item&id=2129:
To improve user inter-operation with virtualized systems VMware’s software implements a number of inter-system communication features. The Shared Folder mechanism is one of such feature.

VMware’s shared folders allow users to transfer data between a virtualized system (Guest) and the non-virtualized Host system that contains it. This form of data transfer is available to users of the Guest system through read and write access to filesystem folders shared by both Guest and Host systems. To maintain effective isolation between Guest and Host systems, this mechanism should limit access from the Guest only to the Host system’s folders that are selected for sharing with the virtualized guests.

A vulnerability was found in VMware’s shared folders mechanism that grants users of a Guest system read and write access to any portion of the Host’s file system including the system folder and other security-sensitive files. Exploitation of this vulnerability allows attackers to break out of an isolated Guest system to compromise the underlying Host system that controls it.

Solution:
Response
By default, the shared folders feature is disabled in Workstation 6, Player 2, and ACE 2. In order to exploit this vulnerability, the virtual machine must have the shared folders feature manually enabled and at least one folder configured for sharing between the host and guest. Given the requirements of the vulnerability, it cannot be exploited by default in Workstation 6, Player 2, and ACE 2.

Workstation 5, Player 1, and ACE 1 enable the shared folders feature by default, but exploiting this vulnerability still requires at least one folder to be configured as shared between the host and guest. Given the requirements of the vulnerability, it cannot be exploited by default in Workstation 5, Player 1, and ACE 1.

The issue affects all currently supported Windows-hosted versions of VMware Workstation, ACE, and Player. The issue does not affect VMware ESX Server or VMware Desktop Infrastructure products. There have been no reports of this issue occurring in customer environments.
Workaround
Until VMware releases a patch to fix this issue, users of affected Windows-hosted VMware products should disable shared folders.

To disable shared folders in the Global settings:

1. From the VMware product’s menu, choose Edit > Preferences.
2. In the Workspace tab, under Virtual Machines, deselect the checkbox for Enable all shared folders by default.

To disable shared folders for the individual virtual machine settings:

1. From the VMware product’s menu, choose VM > Settings.
2. In the Options tab, select Shared Folders and Disable.

References

• http://www.coresecurity.com/?action=item&id=2129
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2007-1744
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/27944
• http://www.vmware.com/security/alerts/

Note: Some links might not be available until 2/25/2008.

Product Versions:
VMware ACE 1.0.x
VMware ACE 2.0.x
VMware Player 1.0.x (Windows Hosts)
VMware Player 2.0.x (Windows Hosts)
VMware Workstation 5.0.x (Windows hosts)
VMware Workstation 5.5.x (Windows hosts)
VMware Workstation 6.0.x (Windows Hosts)

While installing Windows XP SP3, you receive the following error:

Windows XP Service Pack 3 installation failed.
Access is denied.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Resolution:

1. Backup the Registry

2. If subinacl.exe is not installed, download and install subinacl.exe.

3. Create a file called reset.cmd with Notepad. Copy the text below into the file reset.cmd and run reset.cmd from an account with administrative privileges:

Windows XP Home Edition:

cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
 
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

Windows XP Professional:

cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
 
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
 
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

4. Run windows update.

Windows XP SP3 should now install.

EDITS:
09 May 2008 - Article changed to reflect the release of Windows XP SP3 RTM
10 May 2008 - Windows Batch script updated to a more comprehensive/complete fix.

Check your security applications before installing

According to Microsoft certain security applications are blocked from running, knowledge base article, due to “reliability” issues with Vista SP1.

The following security applications are blocked from running, if installed, after install SP1 for Vista:
BitDefender AntiVirus or Internet Security 10
Jiangmin KV Antivirus 10
Trend Micro Internet Security 2008
Zone Alarm Security Suite 7.1.078

If you have any of the above applications installed, see the vendor for a supported version; before installing SP1 for Vista.

Secunia Advisory: SA29029

Some vulnerabilities have been reported in Opera, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site scripting attacks, disclose sensitive information, or to bypass certain security restrictions.

1) A security issue is caused due to a design error when handling input to file form fields, which can potentially be exploited to trick a user into uploading arbitrary files.

2) An error within the handling of custom comments in image properties can be exploited to execute arbitrary script code in the wrong security context when comments of a malicious image are displayed.

3) An error in the handling of attribute values when importing XML into a document can be exploited to bypass filters and conduct cross-site scripting attacks if these values are used as document content.

The vulnerabilities are reported in versions prior to 9.26.

Solution:
Update to version 9.26.
http://www.opera.com/download/

Provided and/or discovered by:
The vendor credits:
1) Mozilla
2) Max Leonov
3) Arnaud

Original Advisory:
Opera:
http://www.opera.com/support/search/view/877/
http://www.opera.com/support/search/view/879/
http://www.opera.com/support/search/view/880/

Bugtraq ID: 27812
Class: Design Error
Remote: Yes
Local: No
Published: Feb 15 2008 12:00AM
Updated: Feb 15 2008 11:05PM
Credit: carl hardwick is credited with the discovery of this issue.

Mozilla Firefox is prone to a remote denial-of-service vulnerability because of the way the browser handles IFrames.

Attackers can exploit this issue to make the browser unresponsive and cause denial-of-service conditions.

Firefox 2.0.0.12 is vulnerable; other versions may also be affected.

I am a member of many security related sites, and this has been a topic of discussion on many of those sites. I had this discussion recently on the a-squared support forums, which I head their malware removal forum.

Using utilities such Microsoft’s System Configuration Utility (MSConfig) to force Safe Mode, is an unsafe method of getting to Safe Mode, when the “F8” method does not work.

These programs make changes to the boot.ini file, by adding the /safeboot argument to your Operating System startup up line, in order to force Safe Mode at reboot.

Once you have finished working in “Safe Mode”, you would run the Microsoft System Configuration Utility, uncheck the /safeboot option, removing the /safeboot argument from the boot.ini, allowing the system to boot normally.

On an Operating System that is functioning properly, this is normally not a problem. Unfortunately, there are forms of Malware that will delete the “Safeboot” Windows Registry keys, meaning the computer will not boot to “Safe Mode”, rendering the system inoperable.

If this happens, the only way to undo the changes and restore proper settings is to boot to the Recovery Console, and rebuild the boot.ini. If you do not have a Windows installation CD or the Recovery Console is not installed, you will be not be able to restore the correct settings in the boot.ini.

See the How to Boot Windows to Safe Mode Tutorial, in the MalwareTeks Wiki.

Ben Edelman takes on C-NetMedia!

Not every “anti-spyware” program is what it claims to be. Some truly have users’ interests at heart — identifying and removing bona fide risks to privacy, security, stability, or performance. Others resort to a variety of tricks to confuse users about what they’re getting and why they purportedly need it.

This article reports the results of my examination of anti-spyware software from C-NetMedia. I show:

[Read Full Article]