CVE-2024-22255
Published: 05 March 2024
Summary
CVE-2024-22255 is a high-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Vmware Esxi. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 10.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain an information disclosure vulnerability in the UHCI USB controller. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2024-22255 with a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.1 and is associated with CWE-770. It enables leakage of memory contents from the vmx process when the affected USB controller is present in a virtual machine.
A malicious actor who already possesses administrative access inside a virtual machine can exploit the issue locally to read memory belonging to the hypervisor's vmx process. The attack requires no user interaction and crosses the virtualization boundary, resulting in high confidentiality impact without affecting integrity or availability.
The referenced VMware advisory VMSA-2024-0006 supplies mitigation guidance and patch information for the affected products. The associated EPSS score reached a modest peak of 0.0638 before receding to its current value of 0.0498, indicating limited and transient exploitation interest after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-19824
Vulnerability details
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain an information disclosure vulnerability in the UHCI USB controller. A malicious actor with administrative access to a virtual machine may be able to exploit this issue to leak memory from the vmx process.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
This control implements explicit throttling on session allocation, addressing the weakness of allocating resources without limits.
Plan testing exercises resource allocation limits and throttling during simulated failures, directly addressing weaknesses that allow unbounded resource use.
Contingency plan updates ensure recovery strategies address unbounded resource allocation, making it harder for attackers to exploit lack of throttling to cause prolonged outages.
Provides continuity when unbounded resource allocation at the primary site leads to exhaustion and downtime.
Alternate services allow operations to continue when primary allocation of resources lacks limits or throttling.
Explicit planning of security-related actions requires defining limits, windows, and resource allocations, making allocation without throttling far less likely.
Measures of performance include tracking allocation behavior and throttling effectiveness, reducing the window for resource exhaustion attacks.
Imposes an inactivity-based limit on network resource allocation, throttling the number of concurrently held connections.