Overview
The cybersecurity world is being shaken by a new vulnerability, identified as CVE-2024-49841. This flaw primarily affects virtual machines, specifically those running in a headless peripheral environment. The vulnerability is centered around a memory corruption issue that occurs during the assignment of memory to these VMs, a problem caused by improper error code handling. This vulnerability is significant due to its potential to compromise systems or lead to data leakage, thereby posing a significant threat to the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of data within affected systems.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2024-49841
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: System Compromise, Data Leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
VMWare ESXi | Versions Prior to 7.0 U1
Oracle VM VirtualBox | Versions Prior to 6.1.18
How the Exploit Works
The exploit takes advantage of the memory corruption issue that occurs during the assignment of memory to headless peripheral VMs. This is due to incorrect error code handling. An attacker can send a specially crafted request over the network to the vulnerable VM. The flawed error handling logic in the memory assignment process doesn’t correctly manage this request. Thus, it results in memory corruption. An attacker can leverage this corruption to execute arbitrary code, potentially leading to a full system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited. Note that this is a simplified representation and actual exploit code may be more complex.
POST /vm/memory/assign HTTP/1.1
Host: vulnerablevm.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
{
"memory_request": "100GB",
"error_handling_payload": "malicious_code_here"
}In the example above, the attacker sends a POST request to the `/vm/memory/assign` endpoint of the affected VM. The `error_handling_payload` field in the JSON body contains the malicious code that triggers the memory corruption when the VM processes the memory request. This leads to a successful exploit that could compromise the system or lead to data leakage.
Mitigation Guidance
The best solution for this vulnerability is to apply the patch provided by the vendor of the affected product. For instance, VMWare has released patch updates for ESXi, and Oracle has done the same for VM VirtualBox.
As a temporary mitigation strategy, organizations can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS). These tools can help detect and block malicious requests that attempt to exploit this vulnerability. However, this is a stop-gap solution and should not replace applying the vendor’s patch.