CVE-2024-37085
VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 20 August 2024). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can gain full access to an ESXi host that was previously configured to use AD for user management https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/joining-vsphere-hosts-to-active-directory.html by re-creating the configured AD group ('ESXi Admins' by default) after it was deleted from AD.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.2 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 26.77% probability · 98th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Listed 30 July 2024 · due 20 August 2024 · used in ransomware campaigns
- Weakness
- CWE-287, CWE-305
- Affected
- vmware/cloud foundation · vmware/esxi
- Source
- security@vmware.com
EPSS 26.8% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
CISA notes
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/24505; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-37085
References
- https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/24505Patch, Vendor Advisory
- https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/24505Patch, Vendor Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-37085US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.