Critical Unpatched VMware Flaw Affects Multiple Corporates Products

VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi70U1b-17168206, 6.7 before ESXi670-202011101-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202011301-SG), Workstation (15.x before 15.5.7), Fusion (11.x before 11.5.7) contain a use-after-free vulnerability in the XHCI USB controller. A malicious actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine may exploit this issue to execute code as the virtual machine's VMX process running on the host.

VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi70U1b-17168206, 6.7 before ESXi670-202011101-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202011301-SG) contains a privilege-escalation vulnerability that exists in the way certain system calls are being managed. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process only, may escalate their privileges on the affected system. Successful exploitation of this issue is only possible when chained with another vulnerability (e.g. CVE-2020-4004)

CVE-2020-4006 is a command injection flaw (CWE-78, CVSS 3.1 9.1) in the admin consoles of VMware Workspace ONE Access, Workspace ONE Access Connector, VMware Identity Manager, and VMware Identity Manager Connector, with the affected components also shipped inside VMware Cloud Foundation and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager. An attacker who gains privileged access to an admin console, which is typically reachable over the network, can inject and run arbitrary commands on the appliance, achieving full compromise of the host with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact and a changed scope. Organizations running the affected identity products are exposed, especially where the admin console is internet-facing or reachable from untrusted networks. The bug was actively exploited by Russian state-sponsored (SVR/APT29) actors against unpatched deployments, prompting a CISA emergency directive, NSA and FBI joint warnings, and inclusion in the KEV catalog; EPSS estimates a 17.3% probability of exploitation within 30 days, and no public proof-of-concept is known.

Do: Apply the patches VMware released in its November 2020 advisory (VMSA-2020-0027) for all affected products, connectors, and any Cloud Foundation or vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager deployments that embed the components — this is a KEV-required action. As an interim mitigation, restrict network access to the admin console (typically port 8443) to trusted users and networks only. Review admin-console and system logs for signs of command injection or SVR/APT29 activity, since the bug was exploited in the wild by Russian state-sponsored actors.