# CVE-2007-1056: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by exploiting weak file and registry permissions to execute privileged VMware tools operations.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 21 Feb 2007
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9pr8-r22q-3qxg

## What is CVE-2007-1056?

CVE-2007-1056 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vmware Workstation, published on 21 Feb 2007. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

VMware Workstation 5.5.3 build 34685 does not provide per-user restrictions on certain privileged actions, which allows local users to perform restricted operations such as changing system time, accessing hardware components, and stopping the "VMware tools service" service. NOTE: exploitation is simplified via (1) weak file permissions (Users = Read & Execute) for %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware; and weak registry key permissions (access by Users) for (2) vmmouse, (3) vmscsi, (4) VMTools, (5) vmx_svga, and (6) vmxnet in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\; which allows local users to perform various privileged actions outside of the guest OS by executing certain files under %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware\VMware Tools, as demonstrated by (a) VMControlPanel.cpl and (b) vmwareservice.exe.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2007-1056?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Vmware Workstation.

## How do I fix CVE-2007-1056?

No fix has been published for CVE-2007-1056 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2007-1056 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2007-1056 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Vmware Workstation

- [CVE-2019-5525](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5525/): Use after free in VMware Workstation (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-5511](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5511/): Path traversal in VMware Workstation (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-5512](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5512/): Privilege escalation in VMware Workstation (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-20854](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20854/): Path traversal in VMware Workstation (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2019-5526](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5526/): Privilege escalation in VMware Workstation (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2007-1056 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2007-1056 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vmware Workstation, published on 21 Feb 2007. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2007-1056 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Vmware Workstation. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1056/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1056/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-1056
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2007-1056
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2007-1056

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1056/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.