Seeing a strange issue with VMware Tools here that I don't see anyone else talking about in respect to the Spectre variant 2 vulnerability. I have a vSphere environment that is fully patched through the 6.0U3e vCenter and the ESXi 3/20/18 patches. Within that environment, I have a bunch of CentOS 6.9 servers. Now we have slacked off for quite some time on upgrading the VMware Tools within these CentOS VMs so most are still running a 5.1.x version, 9.10.1.47876 (build-2791197). These VMs are fully patched with the latest kernel so they shouldn't be vulnerable to Meltdown or Spectre. Prior to upgrading the VMware Tools, the Meltdown/Spectre check script, found here, reports it has not being vulnerable to all three, as shown below:
CVE-2017-5753 [bounds check bypass] aka 'Spectre Variant 1'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel has array_index_mask_nospec (x86): NO
* Kernel has the Red Hat/Ubuntu patch: YES
* Kernel has mask_nospec64 (arm): NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: Load fences)
CVE-2017-5715 [branch target injection] aka 'Spectre Variant 2'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Mitigation 1
* Kernel is compiled with IBRS/IBPB support: YES
* Currently enabled features
* IBRS enabled for Kernel space: NO
* IBRS enabled for User space: NO
* IBPB enabled: NO
* Mitigation 2
* Kernel has branch predictor hardening (arm): NO
* Kernel compiled with retpoline option: YES
* Kernel compiled with a retpoline-aware compiler: YES (kernel reports full retpoline compilation)
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: Full retpoline)
CVE-2017-5754 [rogue data cache load] aka 'Meltdown' aka 'Variant 3'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel supports Page Table Isolation (PTI): YES (found 'CONFIG_PAGE_TABLE_ISOLATION=y')
* PTI enabled and active: YES
* Running as a Xen PV DomU: NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: PTI)
Then if I upgrade to the latest version of VMware Tools for 6.0U3, 10.1.10.63510 (build-6082533), and re-run the script, it now shows the VM is vulnerable to Spectre variant 2:
CVE-2017-5753 [bounds check bypass] aka 'Spectre Variant 1'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel has array_index_mask_nospec (x86): NO
* Kernel has the Red Hat/Ubuntu patch: YES
* Kernel has mask_nospec64 (arm): NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: Load fences)
CVE-2017-5715 [branch target injection] aka 'Spectre Variant 2'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: NO (kernel confirms your system is vulnerable)
* Mitigation 1
* Kernel is compiled with IBRS/IBPB support: YES
* Currently enabled features
* IBRS enabled for Kernel space: NO
* IBRS enabled for User space: NO
* IBPB enabled: NO
* Mitigation 2
* Kernel has branch predictor hardening (arm): NO
* Kernel compiled with retpoline option: YES
* Kernel compiled with a retpoline-aware compiler: UNKNOWN
> STATUS: VULNERABLE (Vulnerable: Retpoline with unsafe module(s))
CVE-2017-5754 [rogue data cache load] aka 'Meltdown' aka 'Variant 3'
* Mitigated according to the /sys interface: YES (kernel confirms that the mitigation is active)
* Kernel supports Page Table Isolation (PTI): YES (found 'CONFIG_PAGE_TABLE_ISOLATION=y')
* PTI enabled and active: YES
* Running as a Xen PV DomU: NO
> STATUS: NOT VULNERABLE (Mitigation: PTI)
Using this to determine what the "unsafe module(s)" are shows:
VULNERABLE - No Retpoline found - vsock
VULNERABLE - No Retpoline found - vmci
Obviously these are VMware Tools components. These were not reported as a problem with VMware Tools 9.10.1.47876 (build-2791197) but are being reported with 10.1.10.63510 (build-6082533). What's the deal? Are these VMs that are reporting those two components really vulnerable? And if so, when can we expect VMware to fix this?