VMware Releases Security Updates for vCenter Versions 6.7.x and 6.5.x

VMware has released critical updates to address the Log4Shell vulnerability in vCenter Server versions 6.7.x and 6.5.x

Threat ID:: CC-4028
Threat Severity:: High
Published:: 9 February 2022 10:00 AM

Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

Summary

VMware has released critical updates to address the Log4Shell vulnerability in vCenter Server versions 6.7.x and 6.5.x

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Versions: 6.7.x prior to 6.7 Update 3q, 6.5.x prior to 6.5 Update 3s

VMware vCenter Server

Threat details

VMware vCenter Server alerts

Please note this alert relates to VMware vCenter Server versions 6.7.x and 6.5.x.

VMware vCenter Server Version 7.x is covered in High Severity Cyber Alert CC-4026.

Note: vCenter Server versions 6.0GA - 6.0U3i are not vulnerable.
However, versions 6.0 U3a/b/c/d/e/f were found to contain unused vulnerable jar files. No impact on the product has been observed after removing these jar files. Please refer to the section entitled "vCenter Server 6.0 U3j on Windows" in KB article KB87096.

Introduction

VMware has released critical security updates to address the Log4Shell vulnerabilities in their vCenter Server management software. They claim that an unauthenticated remote attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected vCenter Server instance.

NHS Digital response to Log4Shell

This alert is part of NHS Digital's wider response to Log4Shell. For more information on Log4Shell itself, please visit our cyber alerts article Log4Shell RCE Vulnerability CC-3989.

NHS and social care organisations are invited to use the Cyber Associates Network to find out additional information and participate in discussion about the Log4Shell remote code execution vulnerability and affected products.

VMware vCenter Products Under Active Exploitation

The Log4Shell vulnerability within VMware vCenter products is being actively targeted and exploited. VMware products have been targeted by advanced persistent threat groups historically.

Remediation advice

Affected organisations are encouraged to review VMware's advisories below and apply the relevant updates immediately.

Remediation steps

Type	Step
Patch	VMware vCenter Server 6.7 Update 3q Release Notes https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-67u3q-release-notes.html
Patch	VMware vCenter Server 6.5 Update 3s Release Notes https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/rn/vsphere-vcenter-server-65u3s-release-notes.html

Definitive source of threat updates

CVE Vulnerabilities

Status Published

CVE-2021-44228

Apache Log4j2 2.0-beta9 through 2.15.0 (excluding security releases 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1) JNDI features used in configuration, log messages, and parameters do not protect against attacker controlled LDAP and other JNDI related endpoints. An attacker who can control log messages or log message parameters can execute arbitrary code loaded from LDAP servers when message lookup substitution is enabled. From log4j 2.15.0, this behavior has been disabled by default. From version 2.16.0 (along with 2.12.2, 2.12.3, and 2.3.1), this functionality has been completely removed. Note that this vulnerability is specific to log4j-core and does not affect log4net, log4cxx, or other Apache Logging Services projects.

Status Published

CVE-2021-45046

It was found that the fix to address CVE-2021-44228 in Apache Log4j 2.15.0 was incomplete in certain non-default configurations. This could allows attackers with control over Thread Context Map (MDC) input data when the logging configuration uses a non-default Pattern Layout with either a Context Lookup (for example, $${ctx:loginId}) or a Thread Context Map pattern (%X, %mdc, or %MDC) to craft malicious input data using a JNDI Lookup pattern resulting in an information leak and remote code execution in some environments and local code execution in all environments. Log4j 2.16.0 (Java 8) and 2.12.2 (Java 7) fix this issue by removing support for message lookup patterns and disabling JNDI functionality by default.

Last edited: 9 February 2022 10:00 am