Use "PCnet-Fast III" Network Adapter in VirtualBox – Prevent virtualbox_e1000_0day Attack

Use “PCnet-Fast III” network adapter in VirtualBox to prevent guest-to-host attack.

MorteNoir1 published a guest-to-host escape from Virtualbox as a zero day attack. He named it virtualbox_e1000_0day. It seems that you can easily protect against the attack by using a virtual network card other than the default e1000.
Update: Windows 10 guests don’t seem to support PCnet-Fast III. Using any virtual network adapter other than e1000 could mitigate the attack.




I have used “PCnet-Fast III” network adapter for years for another benefit – it’s often faster than the others. Nomen est omen? I have not compiled and tested the attack, so this mitigation is based on simply reading MorteNoir1’s description of the attack (some assembly required).

This short article has been updated.