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VMware Possible Incorrect Permissions on SSL Key Files
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SUMMARY
The configuration program, vmware-config.pl, does not correctly chmod the
highly-sensitive generated key file which is used for encrypting traffic
for remote administrative connections.
DETAILS
In vmware-config.pl on VMWare Server v1.0 beta (Linux build 24927), lines
6376 - 6382 are meant to chmod the key and certificate files to safe
values. However, it does not use the custom safe_chmod() sub-routine which
reports errors on failure. Instead, the native Perl chmod() function is
used, without any return code checking.
# Make key readable only by root (important)
chmod 0400, shell_string("$certLoc") . '/' . shell_string("$certPrefix")
. '.key';
# Let anyone read the certificate
chmod 0444, shell_string("$certLoc") . '/' . shell_string("$certPrefix")
. '.crt';
The targets used with the aforementioned chmod() functions are joined
together with some parts generated from using a subroutine called
shell_string(). This is intended to generate shell representations of a
string, which is not desired for generating a file path. This causes the
target passed to chmod() to be incorrect.
Because the safe_chmod() subroutine is not used and no return code checks
are performed, the user is not alerted of the chmod() failing.
Depending on the umask being used at the time, this could leave the key
file readable to any local user on the system.
Exploitation:
Exploitation requires local file access on the VMWare product host and
appropriate network access. File access could potentially be obtained by
manipulating additional existing services. In example, an attacker may be
able to leverage required file access via insecure scripts hosted by an
HTTP daemon.
Various types of SSL-related attacks can be performed once the key has
been obtained.
Solutions:
Manually change the permissions on the key and certificate to its intended
values. The following commands would be appropriate on a default
installation:
# chmod 400 /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.key
# chmod 444 /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.crt
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The information has been provided by Nick Breese.
The original article can be found at: <http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2467205>
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2467205
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