CVE-2020-3991 Path traversal in VMware Horizon Client for Windows

High 7.1 Published 16 Oct 2020 Updated 4 Aug 2024

An attacker can cause denial of service by overwriting privileged files via symbolic links during installation of VMware Horizon Client for Windows.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2020-3991?

CVE-2020-3991 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in VMware Horizon Client for Windows, published on 16 Oct 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

VMware Horizon Client for Windows (5.x before 5.5.0) contains a denial-of-service vulnerability due to a file system access control issue during install time. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow an attacker to overwrite certain admin privileged files through a symbolic link attack at install time. This will result into a denial-of-service condition on the machine where Horizon Client for Windows is installed.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-3991?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Vmware Horizon Client.

How do I fix CVE-2020-3991?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-3991 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2020-3991 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-3991 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-6rc8-hqq9-gfph.