# CVE-2017-7642: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can gain root privileges in the Vagrant VMware Fusion plugin due to insecure PATH handling and missing path verification in the sudo helper.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** 2 Aug 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-5458-w8p3-f624

## What is CVE-2017-7642?

CVE-2017-7642 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 Aug 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The sudo helper in the HashiCorp Vagrant VMware Fusion plugin (aka vagrant-vmware-fusion) before 4.0.21 allows local users to gain root privileges by leveraging failure to verify the path to the encoded ruby script or scrub the PATH variable.

Weakness: CWE-426 (Untrusted Search Path)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-7642?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Hashicorp Vagrant Vmware Fusion.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-7642?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-7642 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-7642 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-7642 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Hashicorp vagrant-vmware-fusion < 4.0.20 - Local Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2017-11741](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-11741/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-16512](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16512/): Race condition in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-16873](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16873/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-12579](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12579/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2017-16839](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-16839/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-7642 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-7642 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 Aug 2017. 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-2017-7642 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2017-7642/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7642/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-7642
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-7642
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-7642

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7642/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.