An industry-wide issue was found in the way many modern microprocessor designs have implemented speculative execution of instructions (a commonly used performance optimization). There are three primary variants of the issue which differ in the way the speculative execution can be exploited.

Variant CVE-2017-5753 triggers the speculative execution by performing a bounds-check bypass. It relies on the presence of a precisely-defined instruction sequence in the privileged code as well as the fact that memory accesses may cause allocation into the microprocessor's data cache even for speculatively executed instructions that never actually commit (retire). As a result, an unprivileged attacker could use this flaw to cross the syscall boundary and read privileged memory by conducting targeted cache side-channel attacks.

VMware ESXi 6.5 without patch ESXi650-201707101-SG, ESXi 6.0 without patch ESXi600-201706101-SG, ESXi 5.5 without patch ESXi550-201709101-SG, Workstation (12.x before 12.5.3), Fusion (8.x before 8.5.4) contain a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability. This issue occurs when handling guest RPC requests. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow attackers with normal user privileges to crash their VMs.

VMware ESXi (ESXi 6.5 without patch ESXi650-201707101-SG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.7) and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.8) contain an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in SVGA device. This issue may allow a guest to execute code on the host.

VMware ESXi (6.5 before ESXi650-201710401-BG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8), and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.9) contain a vulnerability that could allow an authenticated VNC session to cause a heap overflow via a specific set of VNC packets resulting in heap corruption. Successful exploitation of this issue could result in remote code execution in a virtual machine via the authenticated VNC session. Note: In order for exploitation to be possible in ESXi, VNC must be manually enabled in a virtual machine's .vmx configuration file. In addition, ESXi must be configured to allow VNC traffic through the built-in firewall.

VMware Workstation (14.x before 14.1.0 and 12.x) and Horizon View Client (4.x before 4.7.0) contain an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in TPView.dll. On Workstation, this issue in conjunction with other bugs may allow a guest to leak information from host or may allow for a Denial of Service on the Windows OS that runs Workstation. In the case of a Horizon View Client, this issue in conjunction with other bugs may allow a View desktop to leak information from host or may allow for a Denial of Service on the Windows OS that runs the Horizon View Client. Exploitation is only possible if virtual printing has been enabled. This feature is not enabled by default on Workstation but it is enabled by default on Horizon View.

VMware Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8) and Horizon View Client for Windows (4.x before 4.6.1) contain an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in JPEG2000 parser in the TPView.dll. On Workstation, this may allow a guest to execute code or perform a Denial of Service on the Windows OS that runs Workstation. In the case of a Horizon View Client, this may allow a View desktop to execute code or perform a Denial of Service on the Windows OS that runs the Horizon View Client. Exploitation is only possible if virtual printing has been enabled. This feature is not enabled by default on Workstation but it is enabled by default on Horizon View Client.

VMware Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8) installer contains a DLL hijacking issue that exists due to some DLL files loaded by the application improperly. This issue may allow an attacker to load a DLL file of the attacker's choosing that could execute arbitrary code.

The drag-and-drop (aka DnD) function in VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.2 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.2 and VMware Fusion and Fusion Pro 8.x before 8.5.2 allows guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS or cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds memory access on the host OS) via unspecified vectors.

VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.0 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.0 on Windows, when Cortado ThinPrint virtual printing is enabled, allow guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS or cause a denial of service (host OS memory corruption) via an EMF file.

Untrusted search path vulnerability in the installer in VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.0 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.0 on Windows allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in an unspecified directory.

tpview.dll in VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.0 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.0 on Windows, when Cortado ThinPrint virtual printing is enabled, allows guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS or cause a denial of service (host OS memory corruption) via a JPEG 2000 image.

The installer in VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.0 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.0 on Windows allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse setup64.exe file in the installation directory.

Multiple heap-based buffer overflows in VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.0 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.0 on Windows, when Cortado ThinPrint virtual printing is enabled, allow guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS via unspecified vectors.

VMware Workstation Pro 12.x before 12.5.0 and VMware Workstation Player 12.x before 12.5.0 on Windows, when Cortado ThinPrint virtual printing is enabled, allow guest OS users to execute arbitrary code on the host OS or cause a denial of service (host OS memory corruption) via TrueType fonts embedded in EMFSPOOL.

VMware Workstation Pro/Player contains a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability that exists in the vstor2 driver. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow host users with normal user privileges to trigger a denial-of-service in a Windows host machine.

VMware Workstation Pro/Player contains an insecure library loading vulnerability via ALSA sound driver configuration files. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow unprivileged host users to escalate their privileges to root in a Linux host machine.