VMware · Tools
CVE-2023-20867
VMware Tools Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
What it is
A fully compromised ESXi host can force VMware Tools to fail to authenticate host-to-guest operations, impacting the confidentiality and integrity of the guest virtual machine.
CISA: VMware Tools contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the vgauth module. A fully compromised ESXi host can force VMware Tools to fail to authenticate host-to-guest operations, impacting the confidentiality and integrity of the guest virtual machine. An attacker must have root access over ESXi to exploit this vulnerability.
What to do
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Deadline for US federal agencies: July 14, 2023
- Added to the CISA list
- June 23, 2023
- Published
- June 13, 2023
- Severity
- Low 3.9 CVSS 3.1
- Chance of attacks in the next 30 days (EPSS)
- 14% in the top 3.5% of all known vulnerabilities
- Weakness
- CWE-287
- More details
- NVD · CVE.org · CISA
All references (9)
- https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0013.html
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230725-0001/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/08/msg00020.html
- https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5493
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZJM6HDRQYS74JA…
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NVKQ6Y2JFJRWPF…
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TJNJMD67QIT6LX…
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/2
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/11
More exploited flaws from VMware
| Added | Vulnerability | Product | Severity | Attack chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 4, 2025 | TOCTOU Race Condition | ESXi and Workstation | Critical 9.3 | 1.6% |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Arbitrary Write | ESXi | High 8.2 | 1.0% |
| Mar 4, 2025 | Information Disclosure | ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion | High 7.1 | 1.6% |
| Nov 20, 2024 | Heap-Based Buffer Overflow | vCenter Server | Critical 9.8 | 55% |
| Nov 20, 2024 | Privilege Escalation | vCenter Server | High 7.5 | 17% |
| Jul 30, 2024 | Authentication Bypass | ESXi | Medium 6.8 | 27% |
| Jul 17, 2024 | Incorrect Default File Permissions Vulnerability | vCenter Server | Medium 6.5 | 13% |
| Jan 22, 2024 | Out-of-Bounds Write | vCenter Server | Critical 9.8 | 99.2% |
Sources: Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (CISA, public domain), CVE records (cve.org) and EPSS (FIRST). The chance of attacks is the EPSS estimate that someone will try to exploit the flaw in the next 30 days.