Actively exploited · Published Feb 24, 2021 · Assigned by vmware

CVE-2021-21972

Critical 9.8 Exploited Ransomware

In plain English

A critical-severity path traversal in VMware Cloud Foundation. Attackers are actively exploiting it in the wild (listed by CISA on November 3, 2021). It has been used in ransomware campaigns. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 99.9% (higher than 99.9% of all known vulnerabilities). Ready-made attack tooling exists: Metasploit, Nuclei, public proof-of-concept code. Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)9.8Critical
Exploit odds (30 days)99.9%top 0.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildYesCISA KEV since Nov 3, 2021
Attack tooling3Metasploit, Nuclei, Public PoC

CISA guidance

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Federal agencies must remediate by Nov 17, 2021.

Official description

The vSphere Client (HTML5) contains a remote code execution vulnerability in a vCenter Server plugin. A malicious actor with network access to port 443 may exploit this issue to execute commands with unrestricted privileges on the underlying operating system that hosts vCenter Server. This affects VMware vCenter Server (7.x before 7.0 U1c, 6.7 before 6.7 U3l and 6.5 before 6.5 U3n) and VMware Cloud Foundation (4.x before 4.2 and 3.x before 3.10.1.2).

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
n/a VMware vCenter Server 7.x before 7.0 U1c6.7 before 6.7 U3l6.5 before 6.5 U3n
n/a VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x before 4.23.x before 3.10.1.2

Weakness: CWE-22 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References