{"id":3382,"date":"2012-11-06T07:35:49","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T07:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darknet.org.uk\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2015-09-09T19:36:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T11:36:56","slug":"vmware-esx-source-code-leaked-on-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.darknet.org.uk\/2012\/11\/vmware-esx-source-code-leaked-on-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"VMWare ESX Source Code Leaked On The Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another big source code leak, this time VMWare<\/a> ESX, software which I’m sure most of the readers here have used at some point (I know I have).<\/p>\n

There was a time back in 2006 when VMWare Rootkits<\/a> seemed like they might be the next big thing, but nothing much ever came out of it.<\/p>\n

VMware is playing it down, but I think this is a fairly serious leak – we all know what happens when the bad guys get access to source code – they find lovely new 0day bugs to play with.<\/p>\n

VMware has confirmed that the source code for old versions of its ESX technology was leaked by hackers over the weekend – but played down the significance of the spill.<\/p>\n

The virtualisation giant said on Sunday that the exposed portions of its hypervisor date back to 2004, and the leak follows the disclosure of VMware source code in April.<\/p>\n

“It is possible that more related files will be posted in the future,” Iain Mulholland, VMware’s director of platform security, explained. “We take customer security seriously and have engaged our VMware Security Response Center to thoroughly investigate.”<\/p>\n

Mulholland said customers who apply the latest product updates and patches, in addition to following system hardening guidelines, ought to be protected against attacks developed in the wake of the code leak.<\/p>\n

“By applying the combination of the most current product updates and the relevant security patches, we believe our customer environments will be best protected,” he said.<\/p>\n

A 2MB compressed archive of the software blueprints was uploaded into file-sharing networks and promoted by various tweeters on Sunday. Some of these tweets, posted with the hashtags #Anonymous #AntiSec and #SourcySleazySundays, claimed that the leaked code was the “full VMware ESX Server Kernel”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of the people posting the code were hash-tagging with Anonymous<\/a> – but there’s been no ‘official’ announcement from any of the Anonymous channels so I doubt it’s really related.<\/p>\n

As usual VMWare are saying if you’re using the latest patched version and have applied the ‘hardening measures’ you will be safe. I’d except something nasty to come out of this within the next month or so.<\/p>\n