[ GLSA 200502-18 ] VMware Workstation: Untrusted library search path

[GLSA]

Gentoo Linux Security Advisory

Title: VMware Workstation: Untrusted library search path (GLSA 200502-18)
Severity: normal
Exploitable: local
Date: February 14, 2005
Updated: May 25, 2006
Bug(s): #81344
ID: 200502-18

Synopsis

VMware may load shared libraries from an untrusted, world-writable directory, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code.

Background

VMware Workstation is a powerful virtual machine for developers and system administrators.

Affected Packages

Package: app-emulation/vmware-workstation
Vulnerable: < 4.5.2.8848-r5
Unaffected: >= 4.5.2.8848-r5
Unaffected: >= 3.2.1.2242-r4 < 3.2.1.2243
Architectures: All supported architectures


Description

Tavis Ormandy of the Gentoo Linux Security Audit Team has discovered that VMware Workstation searches for gdk-pixbuf loadable modules in an untrusted, world-writable directory.

Impact

A local attacker could create a malicious shared object that would be loaded by VMware, resulting in the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running VMware.

Workaround

The system administrator may create the file /tmp/rrdharan to prevent malicious users from creating a directory at that location: