Download VMWare Workstation 5.5.4 build 44386

Last week, VMWare released an update of its Workstation software, which is version 5.5.4 build 44386. The new version is available from this page be brought in for Windows and Linux. Workstation allows you to run another operating system within a virtual machine. In this way it is possible to run multiple Linux environments in, for example, a Windows. Build 44386 of version 5.5.4 can be seen as a maintenance release that closes a number of security vulnerabilities. What exactly has changed in the new Workstation can be read below:

Workstation 5.5.4 addresses the following security issues:

• Virtual machines can be put in various states of suspension, as specified by the ACPI power management standard. When returning from a sleep state (S2) to the run state (S0), the virtual machine process (VMX) collects information about the last recorded running state for the virtual machine. Under some circumstances, VMX read state information from an incorrect memory location. This issue could be used to complete a successful Denial-of-Service attack where the virtual machine would need to be rebooted. Thanks to Tavis Ormandy of Google for identifying this issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE- 2007-1337 to this issue.
• Some VMware products support storing configuration information in VMware system files. Under some circumstances, a malicious user could instruct the virtual machine process (VMX) to store malformed data, causing an error. This error could enable a successful Denial-of-Service attack on guest operating systems. Thanks to Sungard Ixsecurity for identifying this issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2007-1877 to this issue.
• Some VMware products managed memory in a way that failed to gracefully handle some general protection faults (GPFs) in Windows guest operating systems. A malicious user could use this vulnerability to crash Windows virtual machines. While this vulnerability could allow an attacker to crash a virtual machine, we do not believe it was possible to escalate privileges or escape virtual containment. Thanks to Ruben Santamarta of Reversemode for identifying this issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2007-1069 to this issue.
• In a 64-bit Windows guest on a 64-bit host, debugging local programs could create system instability. Using a debugger to step into a syscall instruction may corrupt the virtual machine’s register context. This corruption produces unpredictable results including corrupted stack pointers, kernel bugchecks, or vmware-vmx process failures. Thanks to Ken Johnson for identifying this issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2007-1876 to this issue.
• Shared Folders is a feature that enables users of guest operating systems to access a specified set of folders in the host’s file system. A vulnerability exists that could allow an attacker to write arbitrary content from a guest system to arbitrary locations on the host system. In order to exploit this vulnerability, the VMware system must have at least one folder shared. Although the Shared Folder feature is enabled by default, no folders are shared by default, which means this vulnerability is not exploitable by default. Thanks to Greg MacManus of iDefense Labs for identifying this issue. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) assigned the name CVE-2007-1744 to this issue.

In addition, Workstation 5.5.4 fixes the following problem:

• A problem with VMware Tools caused the guest to run out of memory.

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