CISA KEV catalog
Confirmed active exploitation.
Listed in CISA's catalog of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities: attackers are using it in real attacks. Patch it with priority.
- Name
- VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
- Added to catalog
- Remediation due date (US federal)
- Required action
- Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
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.
Affected products
vmware: cloud foundation; vmware: esxi
References3
- support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/ext… PatchVendor Advisory
- support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/ext… PatchVendor Advisory
- www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=… US Government Resource
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
7.2
HIGH
Score source: NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - EPSS — exploit probability
- 27% percentile: 98 · as of 3 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-287CWE-305
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