# CVE-2018-6971: Information disclosure in Horizon View Agent

> Low-privileged users can read credentials from log files if a different account is used during Horizon View Agent installation.

- **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:** 25 Jul 2018
- **Updated:** 17 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h9j3-9qh7-j5xq

## What is CVE-2018-6971?

CVE-2018-6971 is a high-severity vulnerability in VMware Horizon View Agent, published on 25 Jul 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

VMware Horizon View Agents (7.x.x before 7.5.1) contain a local information disclosure vulnerability due to insecure logging of credentials in the vmmsi.log file when an account other than the currently logged on user is specified during installation (including silent installations). Successful exploitation of this issue may allow low privileged users access to the credentials specified during the Horizon View Agent installation.

Weakness: CWE-532 (Insertion of Sensitive Information into Log File)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6971?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Vmware Horizon View Agents.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6971?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-6971 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-6971 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6971 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-6971 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6971 is a high-severity vulnerability in VMware Horizon View Agent, published on 25 Jul 2018. 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-2018-6971 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: VMware Horizon View Agent. 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-2018-6971/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6971/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6971
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6971
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6971

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6971/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.