RE: Counter measures to VMware fingerprinting

[Ryan.Barnett () atf gov]

Comment #1 - I applaud any effort to fingerprint/identify an application or
OS.  This type of understanding can only increase the effectiveness of
future security measures.

Comment #2 - With EMC's recent acquisition of VMware, the future validity of
classifying vmware hosts as most likely "honeypot" systems will be
decreased.  VMware is a fabulous tool for honeypot/honeynet research,
however its use in production environments looks like it will only increase.
This will help us honeypotters with blending in with our environment ;)

> Most Respectfully,
> Ryan C. Barnett
> SANS: GCFA, GCIH, GCUX, GSEC
> Department of Justice - ATF
> Information Services Division
> Operations Security Team Lead
>  


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kostya KORTCHINSKY [mailto:kostya.kortchinsky () renater fr]
> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 4:27 AM
> To: honeypots () securityfocus com
> Subject: Counter measures to VMware fingerprinting
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Included with this mail is a patch that addresses a few of the most 
> obvious ways to fingerprint locally a guest OS running under VMware.
>
> The modifications done are :
> - names of the IDE devices (HD & CDROM)
> - names of the SCSI devices (HD & CDROM)
> - PCI vendor and device ID of the video adapter
> - I/O backdoor (feel free to modify the magic number !)
>
> This version targets VMware Workstation for Linux version 4.0.5.
>
> Only constants are modified (except for the SCSI CDROM where a little 
> code injection was needed since vendor and revision strings are 
> originally the same as for the SCSI HD), which shouldn't raise any 
> security issue.
>
> This is only an early version of the patch, and the one being 
> developped 
> has more features, including BIOS replacements. Anyway, I 
> would like to 
> have some return from experienced people regarding this, 
> perhaps other 
> things to patch, or other ways to fingerprint VMware.
>
> I stress the fact that you should _backup_ your *vmware-vmx* binary 
> before using this, and preferably your guest OS, in case 
> things goes wrong.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kostya KORTCHINSKY
> French HoneyNet Project
> http://www.frenchhoneynet.org