CVE-2023-20867: 
Bottlerocket vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2023-20867 is an Authentication Bypass vulnerability discovered in VMware Tools' vgauth module, disclosed on June 13, 2023. The vulnerability affects VMware Tools versions prior to 12.2.5, including versions 10.3.x through 12.2.0. This security issue was responsibly reported to VMware by Mandiant (VMware Advisory).

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSSv3.1 base score of 3.9 (Low severity) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N. The issue specifically affects the vgauth module within VMware Tools, which handles authentication for host-to-guest operations (VMware Advisory, NVD).

When successfully exploited, this vulnerability can lead to the disclosure of sensitive information and potential modification of data within the guest virtual machine. The impact is specifically related to the confidentiality and integrity of the guest virtual machine when host-to-guest operations are performed (VMware Advisory, NetApp Advisory).

The primary mitigation is to update VMware Tools to version 12.2.5 or later for most systems, or version 10.3.26 for older Linux releases. VMware has noted a known issue when upgrading from version 12.2.0 to 12.2.5 on Windows VMs and recommends upgrading to version 12.2.6 instead. No alternative workarounds are available (VMware Advisory).

The vulnerability has been acknowledged and addressed by multiple Linux distributions including Debian and Fedora, which have released security updates to address the issue. Debian classified it as part of DSA-5493-1, while Fedora included fixes in their updates for versions 37, 38, and 39 (Debian Security, Fedora Updates).