Description
vmware-hgfsmounter in VMware Open Virtual Machine Tools (aka open-vm-tools) 8.4.2-261024 and earlier attempts to append to the /etc/mtab file without first checking whether resource limits would interfere, which allows local users to trigger corruption of this file via a process with a small RLIMIT_FSIZE value, a related issue to CVE-2011-1089.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | open-vm-tools | 2:8.4.2+2011.08.21-471295-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | open-vm-tools | 2:8.4.2+2011.08.21-471295-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | open-vm-tools | 2:8.4.2+2011.08.21-471295-1 | — |
References
- vmware-vmwarehgfsmounter-sec-bypass(66699) vdb-entry
- [oss-security] 20110314 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- 44904 third-party-advisory
- [oss-security] 20110303 Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110322 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110322 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110305 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=688980
- [oss-security] 20110307 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110401 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110304 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110314 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110331 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110304 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110314 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110303 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110305 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110331 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20110315 Re: Suid mount helpers fail to anticipate RLIMIT_FSIZE mailing-list
- openSUSE-SU-2011:0617 vendor-advisory