What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-5330

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 18.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2016-08-08 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-426

Description

Untrusted search path vulnerability in the HGFS (aka Shared Folders) feature in VMware Tools 10.0.5 in VMware ESXi 5.0 through 6.0, VMware Workstation Pro 12.1.x before 12.1.1, VMware Workstation Player 12.1.x before 12.1.1, and VMware Fusion 8.1.x before 8.1.1 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory.

Affected products

• VMware ESXi: from 5.0 through 6.0
• VMware Fusion: from 8.1 before 8.1.1 — fixed in 8.1.1
• VMware Tools: from 9.0.0 through 10.3.22
• VMware Workstation Player: from 12.1.0 before 12.1.1 — fixed in 12.1.1
• VMware Workstation Pro: from 12.1.0 before 12.1.1 — fixed in 12.1.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: VMware Fusion 8.1.1; VMware Workstation Player 12.1.1; VMware Workstation Pro 12.1.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/windows/misc/vmhgfs_webdav_dll_sideload
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539131/100/0/threaded
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92323
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036544
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036545
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036619
• http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2016-0010.html
• https://securify.nl/advisory/SFY20151201/dll_side_loading_vulnerability_in_vmware_host_guest_client_redirector.html
• http://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/windows/misc/vmhgfs_webdav_dll_sideload
• http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/539131/100/0/threaded
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/92323
• http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1036544

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