Download VMware Player 4.0.3 build 703057

VMware recently released version 4.0.3 of its Player. VMware Player is free software that can run virtual machines created with other VMware products, such as Workstation, Server, and ESX Server. Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disks are also supported. In addition, various pre-installed virtual machines can be this page are downloaded, such as Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora. Version 4.0 brings several improvements in supported hardware, but comes with increased system requirements. Version 4.0.3 fixes two security vulnerabilities.

Resolved Issues

VMware floppy device out-of-bounds memory write

• Due to a flaw in the virtual floppy configuration it was possible to perform an out-of-bounds memory write. This vulnerability allowed a guest user to crash the VMX process or to potentially execute code on the host.
  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-2449 to this issue.

VMware SCSI device unchecked memory write

• Due to a flaw in the SCSI device registration it was possible to perform an unchecked write into memory. This vulnerability allowed a guest user to crash the VMX process or to potentially execute code on the host.
  The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-2450 to this issue.

VMware Security Advisory VMSA-2012-0009 documents workarounds and mitigation for these two resolved issues.

Known Issues

VMware Tools Issues

• If you created a Windows Vista virtual machine in the Workstation 2011 Beta and try to update VMware Tools (VM > Update VMware Tools) in the virtual machine after upgrading to Workstation 8.0 or Player 4.0, the warning message “vmware-update-agent.exe has stopped working” appears. However, VMware Tools can still be upgraded successfully.
  Workaround: To prevent the warning message from occurring, remove VMware Update Agent from the Windows Vista Programs and Features list.

Display and Input Issues

• On a Fedora 15 host, powering on a virtual machine that has DirectX 9 accelerated graphics enabled might fail with the error “Unable to change virtual machine power state: Cannot find a valid peer process to connect to.”
  Workaround: Deselect the Accelerate 3D graphics setting (VM > Settings > Hardware > Display) to disable DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in the virtual machine.
• When you enter Unity mode in an Ubuntu 11.04 guest, application menus do not appear for applications that were opened before entering Unity mode. Application menus do appear for applications that are opened from the Unity launch menu after entering Unity mode.
  Workaround: Disable the APPMENU (Global menu) in the Ubuntu 11.04 guest. See the Ubuntu documentation for more information.

Device Issues

• On Windows hosts, Player crashes if you click Connect or Disconnect in the Removable Devices menu before the console appears.