Software Advisory for CSCwe25223: ESXi 7.0 U3 Hard Reset Vulnerability

Software Advisory for CSCwe25223: ESXi 7.0 U3 Hard Reset Vulnerability

 

October 6, 2023 (Update)

 

 

Dear Cisco Customer,

Cisco engineering has identified the following software issue with VMware ESXi 7.0 U3 that may affect your use of this software. Please review the Software Advisory notice here to determine if the issue applies to your environment and the steps required to address the issue.

For more comprehensive information about what is included in this software, refer to the Cisco software Release Notes, available from the Product Selector tool. From this page, select the product you are interested in. Release Notes are under "General Information" on the product page.

 

Reason for Advisory:

Virtual Machine’s hosted on a host running VMware ESXi version 7.0 U3i through VMware ESXi 7.0 U3m build 21686933 may experience unexpected reboots. 

 

Affected Software:

VMware ESXi versions affected by this issue:

·       VMware ESXi 7.0 U3i build 20842708

·       VMware ESXi 7.0 U3j build 21053776

·       VMware ESXi 7.0 U3k build 21313628

·       VMware ESXi 7.0 U3l build 21424296

·       VMware ESXi 7.0 U3m build 21686933

 

The issue is seen in Cisco HX custom ESXi images and original VMware images directly downloaded from VMware portal.

 

Symptom: 

After upgrading ESXi to one of the affected releases, one or more VM’s can reboot unexpectedly. To determine if your environment is impacted, look for the following entries in the vmware.log files of your affected VMs at the date/time of the unexpected reboot, as the message can also be logged if the VM is rebooted by user (note: log time format may be in GMT so time conversion may be necessary):

Chipset: The guest has requested that the virtual machine be hard reset. 

vcpu-0 - The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system.

 

Conditions:

HX Clusters upgraded to ESXi 7.0 U3 build 20842708 through VMware ESXi 7.0 U3m build 21686933.[AC2] [KC3] 

Resolution:

Update the VMware version to 7.0(U3n) build# 21930508 or later.

Workaround:

If you experience unexpected VM reboots, confirm the issue with log snippet above and use any of the following workaround steps to disable VMX logging for Cisco HyperFlex Controller VM. This workaround only needs to be performed on the Hyperflex Controller VMs:

 

 

A.     From GUI - To configure the disable logging option:

Note: Only use this workaround to mitigate the issue until you can upgrade to an ESXi version with the fix.

 

Prerequisite: Verify cluster is healthy from HXconnect

1.      Log into VMware vSphere client and right click the HyperFlex Controller virtual machine and click Power>Shut Down Guest OS

2.      Right click the HyperFlex Controller virtual and click Edit Settings.

3.      Select the VM Options tab.

4.      Click Advanced to expand options.

5.      Under Settings, Uncheck the Enable logging option, then click OK to save.

6.      Right click the HyperFlex Controller virtual machine and click Power>Power On.

7.      Wait for the cluster to become healthy and perform steps 1-6 on the next node.

 

Example: