VMware Workstation update fixes an arbitrary file deletion bug

VMware addressed a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-20854, in VMware Workstation.

VMware fixed a high-severity privilege escalation flaw, tracked as CVE-2023-20854, that impacts Workstation.

An attacker can exploit the vulnerability to delete arbitrary files on Workstation version 17.x for Windows OS.

“An arbitrary file deletion vulnerability in VMware Workstation was privately reported to VMware. Updates are available to remediate this vulnerability in the affected VMware product.” reads the advisory published by the virtualization giant.

The issue was reported by Frederik Reiter of Cirosec GmbH, it has been rated with a CVSSv3 base score of 7.8.

Cirosec plans to release technical details soon, meantime, it urges customers to patch their systems. The security firm explained in a Tweet that the arbitrary file deletion vulnerability (CVE-2023-20854) allows local privilege escalation to SYSTEM.

Recently another flaw in VMware vRealize Log Insight, tracked as CVE-2022-31706 (CVSS base 9.8/10), made the headlines after Horizon3 security researchers released proof-of-concept (PoC) code.

The PoC exploit code will trigger a series of flaws in vRealize Log to achieve remote code execution on vulnerable installs.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, privilege escalation)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.