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VMware Bug Allowed Root Access (arstechnica.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the changing-access-permissions dept.

c4231 quotes Ars Technica: While everyone was screaming about Meltdown and Spectre, another urgent security fix was already in progress for many corporate data centers and cloud providers who use products from Dell's EMC and VMware units. A trio of critical, newly reported vulnerabilities in EMC and VMware backup and recovery tools -- EMC Avamar, EMC NetWorker, EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance, and vSphere Data Protection -- could allow an attacker to gain root access to the systems or to specific files, or inject malicious files into the server's file system. These problems can only be fixed with upgrades. While the EMC vulnerabilities were announced late last year, VMware only became aware of its vulnerability last week.

33 comments

  1. I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to work at vmware. They have criminals in china doing most of the code. The code is "lost" now. The smart people who made it are all gone and they have very young engineers from china doing all the code. Its riddled with bugs and likely back doors. They also destroyed the Nicira team. Smart, talented SDN guys who are all gone. Now Nicira is more or less dead and the crap china code, NSX-V and the new crap china code, NSX-T is there. Its crap. And they cant make a single installer for all their crap. each of their products is totally disjointed. You cant find a SINGLE PERSON at vmware capable of installing all of their products. Try finding someone who can install FOUR. Lets alone all of them. Its a alot of chinese and desi engineers who are way too young to understand what they are building. the product managers are young bucks who sling marketing slides but never automation and code. Its a shame. I really think all the engineering talent is locked up with that psycho asshole bezos / scamazon, microsoft, google and alibaba and tencent. the rest of the IT shops are full of young obedient small minded desi and chinese slaves who "do whatever". the really smart engineers at google, fakebook, scamazon, microsoft and google might be smarter but they willfully implement horrible evil plans for the love of money. the NSX+ESXi+vpshere on scamazon truly sucks, its double locking, lockin to scamazon and then locking to the horrible NSX apis for doing networking crap. if you can call them APIs. In reality NSX forces most configuration to do CLICK OPS, not really automated. Disgusting. vmware is a burnt out husk of what it used to be. tsarkon reports

    1. Re:I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering. by swb · · Score: 1

      I can't comment on the internals of VMware, but as a longtime user and vendor I feel like VMware went off the rails a few years ago. I think once they had a lot of SMB penetration the MBA geniuses knew growth was going to stall and they moved into the "tools and extensions" mode where they pushed all the add-ons...which maybe only bigger customers buy.

      The few we installed always sucked, a weird mix of appliance VMs, Windows services, etc, and much of it was a mish-mash of configuration in vCenter web and Windows.

      And while we're talking about vCenter -- jeezus, can we make the fucking web interface work worth a damn? It's been a trainwreck forever and still is IMHO, and got help you if it gets fucked up AND you need to do some kind of vCenter-only action...to recover vCenter! Which you will have to do since they make stupid mistakes like chronically undersizing vCenter disk partitions which then fill up and crash the Jenga structure of 1001 processes that make up vCenter.

      It's high time base vCenter functionality like VM migration (including storage migration) was built into the base host install.

      IMHO, for basic virtualization it's still a shitload better than Hyper-V. I keep waiting for 3rd party KVM-based products (like Nutanix) to catch up to Vmware. When they do, VMware's strategy of relying on bolt-ons and big license fees will drain them.

    2. Re:I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering. by jaymemaurice · · Score: 1

      I think much of this was fueled by the $1 Billion VMware Nicira buy. It alienated their partnership with Cisco and VCE and was poor strategy. It's like nobody realized that their user base couldn't figure understand what an MTU mismatch was, let alone handle a network issues caused by layers of poorly written software on broken hardware.

      That stated you don't need to use vCenter to change DVS ports to get vCenter up - you /can/ do it in the CLI and you should be using ephemeral port allocation for the vCenter port-group. Often the difference between getting a senior tech with free time or one from the low cost geographies was evident by whether or not they made you re-install the product.

      --
      120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
    3. Re:I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering. by swb · · Score: 1

      No, I was referring to specific situations where you find yourself needing to make a change in vCenter to support a vCenter recovery step.

      IMHO, vCenter is a real house of cards for VMware environments. There are kind of workarounds, like running multiple clusters with vCenter running in the "other" cluster, frequent cloning/replication, etc, but none of them really solve the core problem that vCenter is 8 gallons of shit in a 4 gallon pail.

      I like the fact that host installs are pretty lightweight (ie for install to flash, etc), but at the same time I think some of the self-imposed limitations on built in native host functionality this requires can be kind of frustrating.

      Too much functionality relies on vCenter and it has proved too fragile on too many occasions. I'd kind of hope for something more clever at this point that involved some of it moved back into the host and vCenter streamlined a bit to only be larger scale functionality and larger database elements.

    4. Re:I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I work here now.

      It feels like working at VERSALIFE from DeusEx.

      https://imgur.com/Kf3QkqP

      Seriously. VMware is phony. Everything is outsourced. hardly anyone works at palo alto. everyone is desi or chinese. all the desis and chinese fight to keep their teams in their respective countries on top. there is NO CTO! VMwares CTO office is like fake news. Nothing is forward looking. Its about using asia as intellectual slave labor to keep this dead company alive.

      The CEO throws these lame parties about 1-2 times a month and lets the desis and chinese take pictures with him.

  2. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    take your meds

  3. Use something else. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only if you use the sanctioned backup and recovery tools. Use something different and you'll not have this problem.

    1. Re:Use something else. by phayes · · Score: 1

      Precisely. Anyone not using these products (& none of the ESXi installs I've seen do), no vulnerability. However Meltdown & Spectre are a problem for everyone.

      --
      Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
  4. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    care to elaborate?

  5. now ESXI get's ceph I may just use them ne cluster by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    now if ESXI get's ceph I may just use them for the next new cluster

  6. "VMWARE BUG!!" = EMC inherited Apache bug? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So as far as I can tell here, there's an Apache Tomcat bug that EMC incorporated and left unpatched in their Avamar products, and it was picked up by VMware in their (end-of life'd) VDP cut-down version of Avamar.
    Making a big song and dance about this being a "VMware" issue seems like a point-scoring exercise.

  7. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OP in this thread is a rambling mix of personal anecdotes and copypasta that's less coherent than the current US president.

    Also, the post is full of grammatical errors, conspiracy theories, and "I'm off my meds" markers like missing capitalization and calling Amazon "scamazon," etc, and then it ends with the promise of more copypasta but abruptly ends with "tsarkon reports."

  8. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He thinks the software is unstable without looking in the mirror first...

  9. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OP in this thread is a rambling mix of personal anecdotes and copypasta that's less coherent than the current US president.

    I'm not so sure. I think it compares rather well against, "my button is bigger than your button". Those are the ramblings of a first grader whereas the OP has at least a high school education. I don't know about you, but I'd call that an improvement over our ersatz President Trump.

  10. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's actually way, way more coherent and on point than Donnie Shithole Jumpsuit Drumpf.

  11. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rambling and incoherent, reminds me of most VMWare product installation procedures. Based on what I've seen regarding quality control, UI, and polish since around VSphere 5.0-5.5 I'd say this aligns pretty close with what we are seeing. Instead of a product growing more polished over time it resembles a patchwork of kludges and fixes these days.

  12. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, we know why YOU don't work there anymore...

  13. Veeam and TSM VE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about veeam B&R?

    1. Re: Veeam and TSM VE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't get us started on this one ðY

  14. Re: now ESXI get's ceph I may just use them ne clu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think youve missed the point of ceph.

    Cheap hardware and free software. No big box brands. Throwing vmware in there really shoots holes in the cheap part.

  15. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineerin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The thing is I too worked for vmware and having seen the code I know heâ(TM)s right.

    They have comment boxes top and bottom of large sections of code typically accompanied by a statement of âoedonâ(TM)t touch this, no one knows what it doesâ.

    The hostd is a perfect example.

    But he is wrong about Chinese developers. Itâ(TM)s hiring directly from MIT to reverse engineer the code.

    This was all about 4 years ago so Iâ(TM)m not sure where things are at now. I do know that the vSphere Appliance in 6.5 is a pos for installing and configuring. It works about every 5th time and goodness me I hope your environment isnâ(TM)t too special or itâ(TM)s just not happening.

  16. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, VMware has been going down hill. Over the last year I have migrated some hypervisor pools to Xenserver 7.x to great success (performance and price), I am considering moving all my internal virtualization to either Xen or KVM, while exploring my plan for a hybrid cloud deployment (some systems moving to AWS).
    I am not suggesting that Xenserver or KVM will be without bugs but I find them equally capable (and sometimes with better support) than the hyped VMware.

  17. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, or VMWare as to speak.
    VMware is hugely expensive - no real savings. I am not clear as to why MS has not decided to become #1 - they have money.

    Even with this, and the other Intel bugs, including the interrupt ones that have not been talked about, Remote access via Citrix and the like is NOT being stopped. Security will do as they are told. When a few more cryptoexchanges go down - the messages may begin to sink through.

  18. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Cramer · · Score: 1

    All too true. Too much of the "product" is a bunch of horrible, bloated JAVA. And way too many "solutions" are collections of acquisitions bolted together poorly.

  19. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by ckatko · · Score: 1

    More like, shut off your bot.

    I bet you money I could make a bot that writes text like that, in a weekend.

  20. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineerin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have comment boxes top and bottom of large sections of code typically accompanied by a statement of âoedonâ(TM)t touch this, no one knows what it doesâ.

    Well they have to support Windows and Microsoft has at least some history of doing weird undocumented things with hardware and hardware makers doing weird undocumented things that don't follow standards. I am quite sure the Linux kernel itself has some sections that just do what Windows appears to be doing, not because it makes sense, instead they do it because it seems to be the only way to get something to work.

    Of course it might be sensible for someone to take a long look at the code and at least write down with what it seems to interact, however that too might give the wrong impression. I had quite a few spooky action at a distance encounters and the code base I had to work with isn't even dealing with low level details or global states, just not documented at all.

  21. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by swb · · Score: 1

    Way too many acquisitions are just sniping of almost-mature products just to prevent someone else from buy them or the IP, not because the buyer really cares about making them work.

  22. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by swb · · Score: 1

    MS would like to be #1, but they are trying to do it through licensing breaks for VMs not software quality and reliability. Hyper-V still sucks and their management tools are worse than VMware.

  23. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineerin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to work at VMware too. I also had code access.
    I never noticed such comments... but I was on the infrastructure support side and was more focused on code related to the installer/networking/storage/fault issues.

    After ~2years I could handle vRealize Automation, vCNS/NSX, Cisco Nexus 1000v, vSAN no problem...
    I refused to support VDP when I realized it was case sensitive checking DNS entries in the installer... I felt my skills would be more effective elsewhere.

    When I was first hired I felt that I was in a proper senior role and among peers enabled to do whatever it took to provide excellent support to the customers. We even had weekly catered lunches. I had a lot of pride in working for the company. It was good until some leadership changes.

    When I left, they weren't back-filling the attrition and the customer support experience seemed to be taking a back seat to cost cutting. They eventually closed the entire support center after pulling the "you guys will be the Center of Excellence" routine forcing everyone to be trained in the most complex products while increasing case volume. Many good people left or burned out before they packaged people out or were offered work from home.

    There are a lot of former VMware employees. We had a engineering page that tracked seniority based on account creations; after 2 years I had more seniority than 1/2 the employee base.

  24. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go back to PUBG faggot bitch.

    Agree about the illegal aliens though. FTATH

  25. Re: I used to work at vmware. Criminal engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check this shit out fuck ass fuck face.

    https://esxi-patches.v-front.d...

    https://esxi-patches.v-front.d...

    Then READ the fucking bulletins fuck shit bag.

    This software is fucking shit.