What is CVE-2023-20896?

CVE-2023-20896 is a medium-severity vulnerability in VMware Vcenter Server, classified under Out-of-bounds Read. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2023-06-22.

How severe is CVE-2023-20896?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.

Out-of-bounds Read in VMware Vcenter Server

CVE-2023-20896

The VMware vCenter Server contains an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in the implementation of the DCERPC protocol. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger an out-of-bounds read by sending a specially crafted packet leading to denial-of-service of certain services (vmcad, vmdird, and vmafdd).

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2023-06-22 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.009 (58.4th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 58th percentile — 58.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.009 · newest: 0.009 · change: 0.000

Affected products

VMware Vcenter Server — versions 7.0, 8.0
VMware Cloud Foundation (Vcenter Server) — versions 5.x, 4.x
VMware Vcenter Server (Vcenter Server) — versions 8.0, 7.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-125 — Out-of-bounds Read

References

www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0014.html (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2023-1800

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-20896?: CVE-2023-20896 is a medium-severity vulnerability in VMware Vcenter Server, classified under Out-of-bounds Read. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2023-06-22.
How severe is CVE-2023-20896?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.