Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Supply Chain Security

VMware Patches Critical Vulnerability in End-of-Life Product

VMware this week announced patches for a critical remote code execution vulnerability in VMware Cloud Foundation and NSX Data Center for vSphere (NSX-V).

VMware this week announced patches for a critical remote code execution vulnerability in VMware Cloud Foundation and NSX Data Center for vSphere (NSX-V).

Tracked as CVE-2021-39144 (CVSS score of 9.8), the security defect exists in XStream, an open source library to serialize objects to XML and back.

The bug impacts all XStream iterations until and including version 1.4.17. Only out-of-the-box versions are affected, but not those where XStream’s security framework was set up with a whitelist limited to the minimal required types.

“Due to an unauthenticated endpoint that leverages XStream for input serialization in VMware Cloud Foundation (NSX-V), a malicious actor can get remote code execution in the context of ‘root’ on the appliance,” VMware notes in its advisory.

NSX-V 6.4.x reached end of general support in January 2022. VMware says that it typically does not mention end-of-life (EOL) products in its advisories, but in this case it has decided to release the patch due to the vulnerability’s critical severity.

VMware says that all NSX-V versions prior to 6.4.14 and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 3.x releases are impacted. The vulnerability has been addressed with the release of NSX-v 6.4.14 and VCF 3.11.0.1.

VMware’s advisory also describes a medium-severity XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in VCF (CVE-2022-31678) that could be exploited by unauthenticated attackers to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition or to leak information.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

According to Tenable senior staff research engineer Satnam Narang, the critical severity of the vulnerability and the fact that VMware chose to release a patch for it may indicate that it is easy to exploit and that in-the-wild exploitation may be observed soon.

“While this vulnerability isn’t on the level of the Log4j flaws, it serves as a reminder of the supply chain risks through the use of open-source software,” Narang said.

Related: VMware Patches Code Execution Vulnerability in vCenter Server

Related: Exploit Code Published for Critical VMware Security Flaw

Related: VMware NSX Data Center Flaw Can Expose Virtual Systems to Attacks

Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Vulnerabilities

Less than a week after announcing that it would suspended service indefinitely due to a conflict with an (at the time) unnamed security researcher...

Data Breaches

OpenAI has confirmed a ChatGPT data breach on the same day a security firm reported seeing the use of a component affected by an...

Risk Management

The supply chain threat is directly linked to attack surface management, but the supply chain must be known and understood before it can be...

Vulnerabilities

The latest Chrome update brings patches for eight vulnerabilities, including seven reported by external researchers.

Vulnerabilities

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft warns vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) could lead to exploitation before an email is viewed in the Preview Pane.

Vulnerabilities

Apple has released updates for macOS, iOS and Safari and they all include a WebKit patch for a zero-day vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-23529.

IoT Security

A group of seven security researchers have discovered numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including bugs that allowed them to control car...

ICS/OT

The overall effect of current global geopolitical conditions is that nation states have a greater incentive to target the ICS/OT of critical industries, while...