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CVE-2013-1662 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the vmware-mount utility of VMware Workstation 8.x/9.x and VMware Player 4.x/5.x on Debian-based Linux systems. The vulnerability arises from the use of the popen library function, which executes the lsb_release binary without specifying an absolute path. If a malicious user places a crafted lsb_release binary earlier in the PATH, vmware-mount will execute it with elevated privileges, allowing the attacker to gain root access on the host OS. This vulnerability does not affect privilege boundaries between guest and host environments and is not present in VMware Fusion, ESXi, or ESX.
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1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos (1 hidden).
This repository contains a single Metasploit module (modules/exploits/linux/local/vmware_mount.rb) that exploits a local privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2013-1662) in VMWare Workstation and Player for Linux (up to version 9.0.2 build-1031769). The vulnerability arises from the setuid vmware-mount binary invoking lsb_release from the user's PATH using popen(3), allowing an attacker to place a malicious lsb_release executable in a writable directory and have it executed as root. The module checks for the presence and setuid status of /usr/bin/vmware-mount, writes a payload to a writable directory (default: /tmp/lsb_release), adjusts permissions, manipulates the PATH, and triggers the exploit. The payload is fully customizable via Metasploit, making this a weaponized, operational exploit. The only endpoints of note are the targeted setuid binary and the temporary payload file. The module is well-structured, leverages Metasploit's payload generation, and is intended for local privilege escalation on vulnerable Linux systems.
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