Removing the deprecated VMware Enhanced Authentication Plugin (EAP) to address CVE-2024-22245 and CVE-2024-22250

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article explains how to uninstall the Enhanced Authentication Plugin (EAP) to address CVE-2024-22245 and CVE-2024-22250. Details on these vulnerabilities are published in VMSA-2024-0003 .

Resolution

The EAP is composed of two (2) entities:

• In-browser plugin/client, "VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in 6.7.0"
• ​​​​​​Windows service, "VMware Plug-in Service"

Broadcom recommends removal of both of these applications from endpoint systems to mitigate the vulnerabilities.

Domain administrators can use PowerShell to detect if the application is installed on a local system:

PowerShell - "VMware Enhanced Authentication Plugin"

if ((Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object{$_.Name.StartsWith("VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in")}) -eq $null) { Write-Host "Not Vulnerable. VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in not installed." -ForegroundColor Green } else { Write-Host "Vulnerable. VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in was found to be installed on the system." -ForegroundColor Yellow }

PowerShell - "VMware Plug-in Service"

if ((Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object{$_.Name.StartsWith("VMware Plug-in Service")}) -eq $null) { Write-Host "Not Vulnerable. VMware Plug-in Service not installed." -ForegroundColor Green } else { Write-Host "Vulnerable. VMware Plug-in Service was found to be installed on the system." -ForegroundColor Yellow }

Note: PowerShell has remote execute capabilities to allow domain administrators to invoke the a given command on remote system or a set of systems. To learn more, visit Microsoft Learn - Microsoft.PowerShell.Core Invoke-Command

VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in 6.7.0

Default install path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Enhanced Authentication Plug-in 6.7\

To remove the in-browser plugin/client, perform one of the following options on the endpoint device:
Option 1 - From Control Panel

1. Open Control Panel
2. Browse for the installed application
3. Locate "VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in 6.7.0"
4. Right-click the application and uninstall

Option 2 - From the Installer

1. Run the original installer for "VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in 6.7.0"
2. In the installer wizard, select "uninstall"

Option 3 - PowerShell

1. Run the following Powershell command

(Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object{$_.Name.StartsWith("VMware Enhanced Authentication Plug-in")}).Uninstall()

VMware Plug-in Service

Default install path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Plug-in Service\

This software is a Windows service:

• Service: CipMsgProxyService
• Display Name: VMware Cip Message Proxy Service
• Listening: TCP vmware-plugin:8094 

To remove the Windows service, perform one of the following options on the endpoint device:

Option 1 - From Control Panel

1. Open Control Panel
2. Browse for the installed application
3. Locate "VMware Plug-in Service"
4. Right-click the application and uninstall

Option 2 - From the Installer

1. Run the original installer for "VMware Plugin-in Service"
2. In the installer wizard, select "uninstall"

Option 3 - PowerShell

1. Run the following Powershell command:

(Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object{$_.Name.StartsWith("VMware Plug-in Service")}).Uninstall()
 

Stop and disable the Windows service if uninstallation is not possible at this time.

Option 1 - Batch/CMD

sc stop CipMsgProxyService
sc config CipMsgProxyService start= disabled

Option 2 - Powershell

Stop-Service -Name "CipMsgProxyService"
Set-Service -Name "CipMsgProxyService" -StartupType "Disabled"
 

Note: If the service cannot be stopped or disabled, then firewall TCP traffic inbound/outbound vmware-plugin:8094.

Additional Information

To remove the "Use Windows Session Authentication" checkbox at the login page of the vCenter UI, follow the below steps:

1. SSH via root to the vCenter Server 
2. Run the following command:

sso-config.sh -set_authn_policy -winAuthn false -t vsphere.local

Note: Replace vsphere.local as appropriate for the environment.