USN-5578-2: Open VM Tools vulnerability

24 August 2022

open-vm-tools could be made to run programs as an administrator.

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Releases

Packages

  • open-vm-tools - Open VMware Tools for virtual machines hosted on VMware

Details

USN-5578-1 fixed a vulnerability in Open VM Tools. This update provides
the corresponding update for Ubuntu 16.04 ESM.

Original advisory details:

It was discovered that Open VM Tools incorrectly handled certain requests.
An attacker inside the guest could possibly use this issue to gain root
privileges inside the virtual machine.

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Learn more about Ubuntu Pro

Update instructions

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 16.04

In general, a standard system update will make all the necessary changes.

References

Related notices

Join the discussion

Need help with your security needs?

Ubuntu Pro provides up to ten-year security coverage for over 23,000 open-source packages within the Ubuntu Main and Universe repositories.

Talk to an expert to find out what would work best for you

Further reading