Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools Privilege Defined with Unsafe Actions Vulnerability
VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges having access to a VM with VMware Tools installed and managed by Aria Operations with…
Severity = CVSS. Probability = EPSS (FIRST). Exploitation = public signals: KEV, EUVD, ransomware, EPSS above 10 %, no account required.
Exploitation probability EPSS · FIRST
Exploitation signals 2 / 5
- KEV catalog (CISA)30 Oct 2025
- Exploited in EUVD (ENISA)30 Oct 2025
- Used by ransomwareno
- EPSS above 10 %8.6%
- No account, over the networkno
What to do
Fix
Apply the vendor’s fix as soon as it is available.
CISA guidance: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Meanwhile
Take the service off the internet or restrict access to it, watch the logs and look for signs of compromise.
Manufacturers (CRA)
Exploited vulnerability in your product: early warning to ENISA within 24 h, then notification within 72 h (Article 14 of the Cyber Resilience Act). The CRA explained
Description ENISA EUVD
VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges having access to a VM with VMware Tools installed and managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled may exploit this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root on the same VM.
Affected products
- 5.x <8.18.5
- 4.x <8.18.5
- 2.x <8.18.5
- 3.x <8.18.5
- 9.0.x <9.0.1.0
- 13.x.x.x <13.0.5.0
- 12.5.x <12.5.4
- 8.18.x <8.18.5
Open source packages OSV
Affected libraries according to OSV, with fixed versions.
Timeline
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Published
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Exploitation reported (ENISA)
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Added to the KEV catalog
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CISA remediation due date
References
Other exploited vulnerabilities from the same vendor
- CVE-2026-41709Broadcom VMWare ESX Insufficient Logging Vulnerability2.3 · Rising fast
- CVE-2026-59310Broadcom VMware vCenter Path Traversal Vulnerability6.4 · Actively exploited
- CVE-2026-22719Broadcom VMware Aria Operations Command Injection Vulnerability6.2 · Background exploitation
- CVE-2024-37079Broadcom VMware vCenter Server Out-of-bounds Write Vulnerability7.0 · Background exploitation
- CVE-2025-1976Broadcom Brocade Fabric OS Code Injection Vulnerability4.7 · Background exploitation