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NVD / CVE Program· CNA vmware

CVE-2024-38813: Privilege escalation vulnerability

Noroxi assessment

Priority: This week (action score 74/100)

  • CISA has confirmed exploitation in the wild (Nov 20, 2024). Remediation deadline for US federal agencies: Dec 11, 2024.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 17.3% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 97.1% of all records.
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.
  • Severity is disputed: the assigning authority (CNA) scores it 7.5, NVD 9.8.

Don’t wait for the next maintenance window. Until a fix is released, restrict access to the affected component and follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · CISA KEV · FIRST EPSS

The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root by sending a specially crafted network packet.

CriticalCVSS 9.8 · v3.1KEVWeaponized No fix recorded
Published
Sep 17, 2024
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
17.3% · 97th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

74

This week

Don’t wait for the next maintenance window.

CVSS
39 / 40 · 9.8 / 10
CISA KEV
30 / 30 · Listed
EPSS
5 / 30 · 17.3%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
active
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
9.8
CNA · vmware
7.5
2.3 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Actively exploited in the wild

CISA added this to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Nov 20, 2024. That signals real attacks, not theory.

Remediation deadline for US federal agencies: Dec 11, 2024.

Get told when this record changes

  • In CISA KEV: exploitation in the wild confirmed
  • Weaponized exploit exists
  • No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2024-38813

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
vmwarecloud foundation
vmwarevcenter server

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • vmware cloud foundation4.0 and later · before 5.2
  • vmware vcenter server7.0
  • vmware vcenter server8.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (vmware). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • n/a VMware Cloud Foundation

    • 5.x, 4.xaffected

  • n/a VMware vCenter Server

    • 8.0 and later · before 8.0 U3baffected
    • 7.0 and later · before 7.0 U3saffected

Same product

vmware: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2021-22005The vCenter Server contains an arbitrary file upload vulnerability in the Analytics service.KEV
    99Now
  • CVE-2021-21972The vSphere Client (HTML5) contains a remote code execution vulnerability in a vCenter Server plugin.KEV
    99Now
  • CVE-2020-3992OpenSLP as used in VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi_7.0.1-0.0.16850804, 6.7 before ESXi670-202010401-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202010401-SG) has a KEV
    94Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2024-37087Jun 25, 2024 · The vCenter Server contains a denial-of-service vulnerability.
    21Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2024-38812Sep 17, 2024 · Heap-overflow vulnerabilityKEV
    85Now
  • Later →CVE-2025-41229May 20, 2025 · VMware Cloud Foundation Directory Traversal Vulnerability
    32Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

Weaponized

A ready exploit tool or active in-the-wild use is known for this vulnerability. This should be your top priority.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

  1. Published
  2. CISA KEV+63 d
  3. TodayNov 10, 2026+784 d

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-250 · Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Show all references (1 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records