Assessment
Why it matters
CISA lists this vulnerability as known to be exploited; exploitation is confirmed; EPSS is 99.5%; technical severity is CVSS 9.8.
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).
Who should care
- Teams operating Cloud Foundation, Vcenter Server
- Vulnerability and exposure management teams
- Security operations teams monitoring exploitation activity
Response plan
What I would do
- Confirm whether Cloud Foundation, Vcenter Server is present in the environment.
- Identify affected versions and establish whether vulnerable services are exposed or reachable.
- Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- Review relevant security telemetry for evidence of attempted or successful exploitation.
- Document the remediation decision and track it to verified completion.
Vendor remediation
Patch and remediation links
Use the vendor source below to confirm the correct fixed version, package or mitigation for your affected product.
Technical details
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CWE
- CWE-22
- Affected versions
- Vmware Cloud Foundation (Start Including: 4.0, End Excluding: 4.2); Vmware Vcenter Server (Version: 7.0)
- Published
- 24 February 2021
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
Signal timeline
- CVE published
- Added to CISA KEV
- Latest EPSS score: 99.5%
- Signal calculated at 88