ESXi
CVE-2012-1516
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Bounds checking, buffer size validation
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 9.9 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 1.16%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could corrupt memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application by sending crafted requests to the affected application. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
The VMX process in VMware ESXi 3.5 through 4.1 and ESX 3.5 through 4.1 does not properly handle RPC commands, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (memory overwrite and process. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Use memory-safe languages or bounds-checking. Enable ASLR, DEP/NX, stack canaries. Use safe string functions.
Affects your stack
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Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Buffer Overflow (CWE-119), which allows attackers to corrupt memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application. The VMX process in VMware ESXi 3.5 through 4.1 and ESX 3.5 through 4.1 does not properly handle RPC commands, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (memory overwrite and process crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code on the host OS via vectors involving data pointers. Affected products include: Vmware Esx, Vmware Esxi. Version information: through 4.1.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
The VMX process in VMware ESXi 3.5 through 4.1 and ESX 3.5 through 4.1 does not properly handle RPC commands, which allows guest OS users to cause a denial of service (memory overwrite and process crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code on the host OS via vectors involving data pointers.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
OpenSLP as used in VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi_7.0.1-0.0.16850804, 6.7 before ESXi670-202010401-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-
VMware ESXi and Workstation contain a TOCTOU race condition leading to out-of-bounds write, allowing local administrator
Systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of
VMware ESXi contains an arbitrary write vulnerability that allows privileged VMX process users to trigger kernel writes,
Untrusted search path vulnerability in the HGFS (aka Shared Folders) feature in VMware Tools 10.0.5 in VMware ESXi 5.0 t
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain an information disclosure vulnerability via HGFS out-of-bounds read, allowi
OpenSLP as used in ESXi and the Horizon DaaS appliances has a heap overwrite issue. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8),
In the add_match function in libbb/lineedit.c in BusyBox through 1.27.2, the tab autocomplete feature of the shell, used
VMware ESXi (ESXi 6.5 without patch ESXi650-201707101-SG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.7) and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.8
The Service Location Protocol (SLP, RFC 2608) allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to register arbitrary services.
The Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) implementation in vmci.sys in VMware Workstation 8.x before 8.0.5 and
VMware ESXi (6.5 before ESXi650-201710401-BG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8), and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.9) contain a
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB