vboxmanage guestcontrol execute: 'error: Session is not in started state' random error

[YoannR]

When executing the following script from host Debian Wheezy 64 bits on guest Windows Sever 2008:

while [ 1 ]; do
    vboxmanage guestcontrol win2k8-newvbox execute "C:\Windows\System32\ping.exe" --username Administrator --password "some_password" --verbose --wait-stdout --wait-stderr --wait-exit -- "-n" "20" "1.1.1.1" >>vbox_exec.log
    vboxmanage guestcontrol win2k8-newvbox execute "C:\Windows\System32\tasklist.exe" --username Administrator --password "Qarnot2013" --verbose --wait-stdout --wait-stderr --wait-exit >>vbox_exec.log
done

I randomly (meaning once in a while with no particular regularity) see some errors like the following:

VBoxManage: error: Session is not in started state
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED (0x8000ffff), component GuestSession, interface IGuestSession, callee nsISupports
VBoxManage: error: Context: "ProcessCreate(Bstr(strCmd).raw(), ComSafeArrayAsInParam(aArgs), ComSafeArrayAsInParam(aEnv), ComSafeArrayAsInParam(aCreateFlags), ctrlExecGetRemainingTime(u64StartMS, cMsTimeout), pProcess.asOutParam())" at line 1327 of file VBoxManageGuestCtrl.cpp

Please find attached a VBox.log file. If you need any further information, I will do my best to provide you with it.

NOTE: the execution of this script also comes with a memory leak of virtualbox as reported in bug #9068.

Thanks.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please upgrade your Guest Additions, they are too old to support the current mechanism of guest control.

[YoannR]

Thank you, I upgraded and the problem is gone. I don't know why I had this outdated version, I must have messed up with my images, sorry for the trivial bug.