The urgency to patch a trio of dangerous security flaws in a VMware virtual appliance product escalated this week after exploit code was published on the internet.
VMware confirmed the publication of exploit code in an update to its VMSA-2023-0001 bulletin and called on customers using its VMware vRealize Log Insight product to implement mitigations as a matter of urgency.
The vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2022-31706, CVE-2022-31704 and CVE-2022-31710, are rated critical with CVSS severity scores of 9.8 out of 10.
The security defects affect users of its VMware vRealize Log Insight and could be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker to take full control of a target system.
VMware described the flaws as directory traversal and broken access control issues with dangerous implications and warned that “an unauthenticated, malicious actor can inject files into the operating system of an impacted appliance which can result in remote code execution.”
The bulletin update follows the publication of a technical deep-dive by automated penetration testing firm Horizon3.ai that included demo exploit code. The company also released IOCs (indicators of compromise) to help defenders hunt for signs of compromise.
VMware’s VRealize Log Insight is a log collection and analytics virtual appliance used by administrators to collect, view, manage and analyze syslog data.
Related: VMware Plugs Critical vRealize Code Execution Flaws
Related: VMware Patches VM Escape Flaw Exploited at Geekpwn Event
Related: Gaping Authentication Bypass Holes in VMware Workspace One