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                   VMware Security Advisory

Advisory ID:       VMSA-2006-0010
Synopsis:          SSL sessions not authenticated by VC Clients
Patch URL:http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vc-201-200611-patch.html
Patch URL:http://www.vmware.com/download/vc/vc-141-200611-patch.html
Knowledge base URL:http://kb.vmware.com/kb/4646606
Issue date:        2006-11-21
Updated on:        2006-11-21
                   CVE-2006-5990
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1. Summary:

VMware VirtualCenter client 2.x before 2.0.1 Patch 1 (Build 33643) and 
1.4.x before 1.4.1 Patch 1 (Build 33425), does not verify the server's X.509 
certificate when creating an SSL session, which allows remote malicious servers 
to spoof valid servers via a man-in-the-middle attack

2. Relevant releases:

VMware VirtualCenter client 2.x before 2.0.1 Patch 1 (Build 33643)
VMware VirtualCenter client 1.4.x before 1.4.1 Patch 1 (Build 33425)

3. Problem description:

To ensure a secure channel of communication, you must be sure that any 
communication is with "trusted" sites whose identity you can be sure of.  Both 
the client and server need certificates from a mutually-trusted Certificate
Authority (CA).

VirtualCenter 2.0.1 Patch 1 and VirtualCenter 1.4.1 Patch 1 resolve an issue 
with server-certificate verification by VirtualCenter clients during the 
initial SSL handshake. Specifically, the x.509 certificate presented by a 
server to a client at the beginning of an SSL session is not verified.  
VirtualCenter 2.0.1 Patch 1 and VirtualCenter 1.4.1 Patch 1 resolve this issue 
for Windows client hosts.
 
However, certificate verification is not enabled by default for the clients.  
After installing VirtualCenter 2.0.1 Patch 1 or VirtualCenter 1.4.1 Patch 1, 
you must specifically enable server-certificate verification on the Windows 
client hosts.

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned 
the name CVE-2006-5990 to this issue.

4. Solution:

Note that installing the updated software does not, by default, enable
authentication. For information about how to enable this new optional 
capability, see Knowledge Base (KB) article 4646606, "Enabling Server-
Certificate Verification for Virtual Infrastructure Clients." 
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/4646606

Client hosts include:

    * VirtualCenter Server host, which operates as a client to each of the
      servers that it manages;

VirtualCenter Server 2.x:
    * Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client, or VIC), client software that
      lets you connect to and manage ESX Server hosts directly, or through a
      VirtualCenter Server host;

VirtualCenter Server 1.x:
    * VirtualCenter Client (VC Client), client software that lets you connect
      to and manage ESX Server 2.x hosts through a VirtualCenter Server host 
      (1.x version).

5. References:

http://www.vmware.com/download/vi/vc-201-200611-patch.html
http://www.vmware.com/download/vc/vc-141-200611-patch.html
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/4646606
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2006-5990

6. Contact:

http://www.vmware.com/security

VMware Security Response Policy
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/technology/security/security_response.html

E-mail:  security@vmware.com

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Copyright 2006 VMware Inc. All rights reserved.

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