EsxiOperating system · VMware
CVE-2012-1515
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedVMware ESXi 3.5, 4.0, and 4.1 and ESX 3.5, 4.0, and 4.1 do not properly implement port-based I/O operations, which allows guest OS users to gain guest OS privileges by overwriting memory locations in a read-only memory block associated with the Virtual DOS Machine.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceVMware ESXi and ESX versions 3.5, 4.0, and 4.1 contain a vulnerability in the port-based I/O operations implementation. A guest OS user can exploit improper I/O port handling to overwrite memory locations in a read-only memory block associated with the Virtual DOS Machine (VDM), enabling privilege escalation within the guest OS.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
EsxiOperating system
= 3.5= 4.0= 4.1
EsxOperating system
= 3.5= 4.0= 4.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Adjacent
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:A/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify VMware product typeRun 'vmware -v' or check /etc/vmware/version on the host system to confirm whether it is ESXi or ESXAffected if The product is not VMware ESXi or ESX
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Check ESXi versionRun 'vmware -v' or use 'vim-cmd hostsvc/host_summary' to retrieve the installed ESXi version numberAffected if The version is 3.5, 4.0, or 4.1
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Check ESX versionRun 'vmware -v' or check /etc/vmware version file to retrieve the installed ESX version numberAffected if The version is 3.5, 4.0, or 4.1
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Verify Virtual DOS Machine I/O port handling is in useThe vulnerability affects port-based I/O operations in the VDM subsystem. Confirm the host runs 32-bit guest operating systems that utilize VDM emulation, which is enabled by default for DOS and older Windows guestsAffected if The host runs affected ESXi/ESX versions AND hosts 32-bit guests utilizing VDM emulation
A host is affected if it runs VMware ESXi or ESX versions 3.5, 4.0, or 4.1 and hosts 32-bit guest operating systems that utilize Virtual DOS Machine emulation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to a supported version of VMware ESXi/ESX beyond 4.1, as these affected versions (3.5, 4.0, 4.1) are end-of-life and no longer receive security patches.
Fix this in Esxi
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $15,616.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2012-1515 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2012-1515 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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