CVE-2007-1056: VMware Workstation

High severity, CVSS 7.2. EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

VMware Workstation 5.5.3 build 34685 does not provide per-user restrictions on certain privileged actions, which allows local users to perform restricted operations such as changing system time, accessing hardware components, and stopping the "VMware tools service" service. NOTE: exploitation is simplified via (1) weak file permissions (Users = Read & Execute) for %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware; and weak registry key permissions (access by Users) for (2) vmmouse, (3) vmscsi, (4) VMTools, (5) vmx_svga, and (6) vmxnet in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\; which allows local users to perform various privileged actions outside of the guest OS by executing certain files under %PROGRAMFILES%\VMware\VMware Tools, as demonstrated by (a) VMControlPanel.cpl and (b) vmwareservice.exe.

Affected products

• VMware Workstation: version 5.5.3_build_34685 only

Published 2007-02-21. Last modified 2026-06-16.