Pierluigi Paganini April 15, 2016

VMware issued a security update to fix a critical vulnerability in the VMware Client Integration Plugin, apply it as soon as possible.

VMware issued a Security Advisory related to a critical security vulnerability (CVE-2016-2076) in the VMware Client Integration Plugin urging administrators to urgently apply the needed patch.

The flaw could be exploited by attackers to launch a Man in the Middle attack or Web session hijacking under certain conditions. The problem resides in the way the VMware Client Integration Plugin handles session content.

“The VMware Client Integration Plugin does not handle session content in a safe way. This may allow for a Man in the Middle attack or Web session hijacking in case the user of the vSphere Web Client visits a malicious Web site.” states the VMware advisory.

The vulnerability affects the following versions of the VMware Client Integration Plugin shipped with:

• vCenter Server 6.0 (any 6.0 version up to 6.0 U2)
• vCenter Server 5.5 U3a, U3b, U3c
• vCloud Director 5.5.5
• vRealize Automation Identity Appliance 6.2.4

The experts at VMware highlighted that in order to solve the issue, both the server side (i.e. vCenter Server, vCloud Director, and vRealize Automation Identity Appliance)
and the client side (i.e. CIP of the vSphere Web Client) need to be updated.

Below the procedure to install the security updates:

1. A) Install an updated version of: 
   – vCenter Server 
   – vCloud Director 
          – vRealize Automation Identity Appliance
2. B) After step A), update the Client Integration Plugin on the system 
   from which the vSphere Web Client is used. 
          Updating the plugin on vSphere and vRA Identity Appliance is 
          explained in VMware Knowledge Base article 2145066. 
          Updating the plugin on vCloud Director is initiated by a prompt 
          when connecting the vSphere Web Client to the updated version of 
          vCloud Director.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – VMware, Virtualization)