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• After installing open-vm-tools on a Linux virtual machine, a vulnerability scan report outdated libraries under the VMware Tools directory (/usr/lib/vmware-tools/).
  For example, the following outdated OpenSSL library is reported: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 vSphere ESXi 8.x

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.

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.