Recently Hector Marco and Ismael Ripoll discovered a vulnerability in common Linux bootloader GRUB.

It affects GRUB2 specifically and was introduced into that version in 2009

http://hmarco.org/bugs/CVE-2015-8370-Grub2-authentication-bypass.html

https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-8370

However it doesn’t affect the original GRUB.

I was concerned about the Virtual Appliances we were running in one of our environments.

  • VCSA - vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 Update 2e | 16 APR 2015| Build 2646489
  • vRealize Log Insight 3.0 GA Build 3021606
  • VROPS 6.1.0 Build 3038036

Each of these VApps runs on SLES 11 patch 3. Now whilst the release notes do indicate that GRUB2 is a new package it doesn’t specify that GRUB2 is now the default bootloader. VMware also refer to their Virtual Appliances as “Security Hardened” https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2013/09/virtual-appliances-getting-more-secure-with-vsphere-5-5-part-1.html So whether SUSE just didn’t make GRUB2 default in 11.3 or VMware chose to revert back to GRUB a quick check on any of the appliances can show you the grub version

grub-install.unsupported -v

This command will return the GRUB version which for (all that I can tell) current vSphere 5 or 6 Virtual Appliances is version 0.97 so GRUB not GRUB2. Panic over. Normal service is resumed