Old VMware Tools components remain after installing open-vm-tools on Linux OS

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x

Issue/Introduction

• After installing open-vm-tools on a Linux virtual machine, a vulnerability scan report outdated libraries under the VMware Tools directory (/usr/lib/vmware-tools/).
  For example, the following outdated OpenSSL library is reported:
  
  Path: /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libssl.so.1.1/libssl.so.1.1
Installed version: 1.1.1t
Security End of Life: September 11, 2023
Time since Security End of Life (Est.): >= 1 year
  
  
• However, the open-vm-tools package neither creates nor uses the /usr/lib/vmware-tools/ directory.

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.0

Cause

This behavior occurs because remnants of the legacy Linux version of VMware Tools were not completely removed before installing open-vm-tools. The directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools/ is created only when the Linux version of VMware Tools is installed. 

Resolution

To resolve the issue, uninstall the legacy Linux VMware Tools and ensure only open-vm-tools is installed.

Please note that the uninstallation script removes only legacy VMware Tools, Open VM Tools will remain intact.

1. Log in to the Linux OS via SSH.
2. Navigate to the /usr/bin/ directory:
   
   # cd /usr/bin/
   
   
3. Run the uninstallation script:
   
   # ./vmware-uninstall-tools.pl
   
   
4. Verify that the directory /usr/lib/vmware-tools/ is removed.