security vulnerability in VMware

vulnerable software: VMware Workstation 6.0 for Windows, possible some other VMware products as well
type of vulnerability: DoS, potential privilege escalation

I found a vulnerability in VMware Workstation 6.0 which allows an unprivileged user in the host OS to crash the system and potentially run arbitrary code with kernel privileges.

The issue is in the vmstor-60 driver, which is supposed to mount VMware images within the host OS. When sending the IOCTL code FsSetVoleInformation with subcode FsSetFileInformation with a large buffer and underreporting its size to at max 1024 bytes, it will underrun and potentially execute arbitrary code.

Interestingly the vmstor driver (which is the old version supposed to mount VMware images prior to version 6.0) is not vulnerable.

I have originally reported this vulnerability on 21-May-07 and got response from the VMware security team, but so far the investigation hasn't gone any further and no update has been released.

how to reproduce:

- get DC2.exe from the latest Windows Driver Kit
- login as unprivileged user
- run "dc2 /hct \Device\vstor-ws60"

workaround:

Disable the vstor-ws60 driver in the device manager. This will disable the VMware Virtual Image Mounter.

Relevant Pages