Security Resilience

CVE-2022-22960

LPE in Vmware Identity Manager 3.3.3 … 3.3.6

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCLPE
Published
13 April 2022
Modified
30 October 2025
KEV Added
15 April 2022
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.36 98th percentile
Risk Priority 83 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2022-22960 is a high-severity Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (CWE-732) vulnerability in Vmware Identity Manager. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, ranked in the top 2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2022-22960 is a privilege escalation vulnerability present in VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager, and vRealize Automation. It arises from improper permissions in support scripts and is tracked under CWE-732, carrying a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 for local attack vectors that require low complexity and low privileges.

An attacker with existing local access on an affected host can leverage the misconfigured scripts to elevate privileges to root, resulting in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the system.

Public references include the official VMware advisory VMSA-2022-0011 along with multiple exploit artifacts published on PacketStorm Security that demonstrate remote code execution and privilege escalation paths.

The associated EPSS score has remained elevated, with a current value of 0.7249 and a peak of 0.7266, reflecting ongoing exploitation interest after the April 2022 disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation contain a privilege escalation vulnerability due to improper permissions in support scripts. A malicious actor with local access can escalate privileges to 'root'.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
15 April 2022

Related Threats

Threat-Actor AttributionAI

AnonOps
Threat Actors Chaining Unpatched VMware Vulnerabilities for Full System Control | CISA
Microsoft Corp. (Salesforce / Slack engineer recruitment claims)
Malicious Cyber Actors Continue to Exploit Log4Shell in VMware Horizon Systems | CISA
Deep Panda (G0009)
Malicious Cyber Actors Continue to Exploit Log4Shell in VMware Horizon Systems | CISA

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2022-22954Same product: Linux Linux Kernelboth on KEV
CVE-2022-22972Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2020-4006Same product: Linux Linux Kernelboth on KEV
CVE-2022-22956Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2013-6282Same product: Linux Linux Kernelboth on KEV
CVE-2013-2094Same product: Linux Linux Kernelboth on KEV
CVE-2024-37087Same product: Vmware Cloud Foundation
CVE-2023-20884Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2019-15752Shared CWE-732both on KEV
CVE-2018-13374Shared CWE-732both on KEV

Affected Assets

vmware
cloud foundation
3.0 — 5.0
vmware
identity manager
3.3.3, 3.3.4, 3.3.5, 3.3.6
vmware
vrealize automation
7.6
vmware
vrealize suite lifecycle manager
8.0 — 9.0
vmware
workspace one access
20.10.0.0, 20.10.0.1, 21.08.0.0, 21.08.0.1

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-732

Procedures support proper permission assignment for critical resources through documented controls.

addresses: CWE-732

Attribute management for resources provides a mechanism to assign and maintain correct permissions based on security labels.

addresses: CWE-732

Prevents overly permissive assignments to critical resources by limiting to task needs.

addresses: CWE-732

Training policy covers correct permission assignment, reducing the ability to exploit incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.

addresses: CWE-732

Training on permission management reduces incorrect permission assignments for critical resources.

addresses: CWE-732

Audit logs and logging tools are critical resources whose protection requires correct permission assignments to block unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-732

Assessments review permission assignments on critical resources to confirm correctness, mitigating exploitation via incorrect permissions.

addresses: CWE-732

Certification includes checking that permissions on critical resources are correctly assigned.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

A.5.1 only requires the existence of an overarching policy and topic-specific policies (including on access control); it does not itself enforce, implement, or act on permissions and therefore cannot stop CWE-732 from being exploitable.

blocks

A.5.12 only defines and communicates a classification scheme (with owners accountable for applying it); it does not itself enforce, restrict or decide any permissions, so the CWE-732 permission flaw can still be present and exploitable.

blocks

A.5.15 directly requires determining access needs, defining and communicating an access control policy, implementing rules that map rights/restrictions to entities (including consistency with classification), and considering need-to-know, privileged restrictions, segregation, formal authorization, and dynamic factors — which squarely stops most incorrect permission assignments from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is misconfigurations that violate the policy itself.

blocks

A.5.18 directly governs the provisioning, review, adjustment and revocation of logical access rights (including for critical resources) according to business needs, policy, SoD and risk, which stops most unintended actors from reading/modifying via incorrect permissions; the bounded remainder is incorrect permission assignments that are not access-right decisions at all (e.g. filesystem umask, ACL syntax errors).

blocks

Documented responsibility for protecting assets encourages correct permission settings rather than leaving them at insecure defaults.

finds

Monitoring supplier policy changes and conducting audits can reveal incorrect permission assignments on resources managed by the supplier, prompting corrective action before they are exploited.

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-732, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-276, CWE-277, CWE-281.

References