CVE-2016-5545 Oracle CVE debrief

Who should care

Organizations and individuals running affected Oracle VM VirtualBox releases, especially workstation and desktop virtualization environments where users interact with the VirtualBox GUI. Administrators should also care if they manage fleets with mixed VirtualBox versions or delayed patching.

Technical summary

The supplied CVE description and NVD metadata identify a vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox GUI component. Affected versions are VirtualBox 5.0.x before 5.0.32 and 5.1.x before 5.1.14. NVD assigns CVSS 3.0 vector CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L and maps the issue to CWE-254. The record states that exploitation is network-accessible, unauthenticated, and requires user interaction, with resulting confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts limited to low/separate subsets and partial DoS.

Defensive priority

Medium. Patch promptly if you run the affected VirtualBox branches, because the issue is network-reachable and requires only user interaction, but the documented impact is lower than remote code execution.

Recommended defensive actions

• Upgrade Oracle VM VirtualBox to 5.0.32 or later, or to 5.1.14 or later, as applicable to your branch.
• Inventory hosts and workstations for affected VirtualBox versions before scheduling remediation.
• Review Oracle's January 2017 CPU advisory for vendor guidance and any additional fix notes.
• Reduce exposure on hosts where VirtualBox GUI use is necessary, and avoid untrusted interaction paths until patched.
• Validate that the installed VirtualBox version is outside the vulnerable ranges after remediation.

Evidence notes

All substantive claims are drawn from the supplied CVE description and NVD metadata. The record states the affected versions, attack conditions, CVSS vector and score, and the CWE mapping. Reference metadata also points to Oracle's January 2017 CPU advisory, SecurityFocus, SecurityTracker, and Gentoo GLSA entries as supporting references.

Official resources