Auth bypass in VMware Cloud Foundation

CVE-2021-22042

VMware ESXi contains an unauthorized access vulnerability due to VMX having access to settingsd authorization tickets. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process only, may be able to access settingsd service running as a high privileged user.

Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (20.1th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 20th percentile — 20.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2021-22042: held from 0.003 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: 0.000

Affected products

  • VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VMware Esxi — versions 7.0
  • VMware Esxi And Cloud Foundation — versions VMware ESXi(7.0 U3 before ESXi70U3c-19193900, 7.0 U2 before ESXi70U2e-19290878 and 7.0 U1 before ESXi70U1e-19324898) and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x before 4.4

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-22042?
CVE-2021-22042 is a high-severity vulnerability in VMware Cloud Foundation, classified under Incorrect Authorization. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2022-02-16.
How severe is CVE-2021-22042?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.