Critical VMWare vCenter Server Flaw (CVE-2024-38812)

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Summary

Broadcom released a critical security update for VMware vCenter Server to address a high-severity vulnerability that could allow remote code execution (RECE). In addition to this CVE-2024-38812,  another vulnerability that allows privilege escalation (CVE-2024-38813) has been patched.  vCenter Server installations must be updated to the latest versions immediately.

 

Risk Score

  CVE-ID                                 CVSSv3 Score 

CVE-2024-38812                9.8

CVE-2024-38813                7.3

 

Vulnerability Details

Broadcom issued a security patch for VMware vCenter Server to mitigate the critical vulnerability CVE-2024-38812.  This heap-overflow vulnerability in the DCE/RPC protocol potentially allows a malicious actor to exploit this flaw in low-complexity attacks that don’t require user interaction by sending specially crafted network packets, leading to remote code execution.

 

Broadcom also provided a patch for a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2024-38813) with a CVSS score of 7.5, which could allow an attacker to escalate privileges to root. This flaw, along with CVE-2024-38812, was discovered by security researchers from Team TZL during the Matrix Cup cybersecurity competition in June 2024.

 

Affected Products

  • vCenter Server versions 7.0 and 8.0
  • VMware Cloud Foundation versions 4.x and 5.x

 

Solution

  • vCenter Server 8.0: Fixed in version 8.0 U3b
  • vCenter Server 7.0: Fixed in version 7.0 U3s
  • VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x: Fixed in 8.0 U3b as an asynchronous patch
  • VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x: Fixed in 7.0 U3s as an asynchronous patch

 

Recommendations

  • Update vCenter Server and VMware Cloud Foundation to the latest versions as specified above.
  • Regularly monitor systems for potential exploits and ensure that only trusted network connections are allowed to access vCenter services.
  • Strictly control network perimeter access to vSphere management components and interfaces, including storage and network components

 

References

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