Spectre & Meltdown on VMware – What you need to patch

Spectre & Meltdown are hot topics at the moment but how does this affect VMware solutions?

VMware have provided detail on their stance on the situation via mostly two KB articles; https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/52245 & https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/52264

In summary this is what is covered:

ESXi, Workstation & Fusion

• ESXi is affected by Spectre and patches were rolled out prior to the vulnerability being made public (for v6.0, v6.5 & VMC at least). See here for full details: https://www.vmware.com/us/security/advisories/VMSA-2018-0002.html
• Patches have also already been released for  Workstation v12, v14 & Fustion v8, v10
• ESXi is not affected by Meltdown but is affected by Spectre
• For a full list of patches that you need to apply to affected products see here: https://www.vmware.com/us/security/advisories/VMSA-2018-0002.html
• IMPORTANT: The microcode update for ESXi has been pulled, action must be taken regardless of if you have already applied this patch. Full details here: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/52345

VMware Virtual Appliances

Virtual appliances that might be affected include:

• VMware vCenter Server 6.5
• VMware vCenter Server 6.0
• VMware vSphere Integrated Containers
• VMware Identity Manager
• VMware vRealize Automation

Patches for these will be released after testing is concluded. Workarounds already exist: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/52264

Photon OS

• Photon OS is vulnerable and security advisories have already been issues here: https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Security-Advisories

Graham

Graham is a seasoned expert in VMware and Microsoft solutions, bringing deep expertise from his 20 years' experience and senior engineering work at Tesla and Dell Technologies in the UK. He focuses on cutting-edge virtualization and storage projects. A VMware Certified Implementation Expert, 10x VMware vExpert, and Moderator on the official Broadcom forums, Graham is a trusted community resource. Connect with him on X.com for insights! https://x.com/VirtualG_UK

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