Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-41244

Vmware Open Vm Tools 11.2.0 – 12.5.4

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoC
Published
29 September 2025
Modified
06 November 2025
KEV Added
30 October 2025
Patch / advisory
View 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 0.079 94th percentile
Risk Priority 83 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-41244 is a high-severity Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions (CWE-267) vulnerability in Vmware Open Vm Tools. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Access Token Manipulation (T1134); ranked in the top 6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-6 (Least Privilege) and AC-5 (Separation of Duties) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

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

VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-41244. The flaw affects virtual machines running VMware Tools that are managed by Aria Operations when SDMP is enabled, allowing a local actor to gain elevated access on the guest operating system. It carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.8 and is associated with CWE-267.

A malicious local actor who already possesses non-administrative access to such a VM can exploit the issue to escalate privileges to root on the same virtual machine. The attack requires no user interaction and occurs entirely within the guest environment.

Broadcom security advisory VMSA-2025-0015 and related vendor notices direct customers to apply the updates released for VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools to remediate the vulnerability along with two companion issues.

EPSS for the CVE rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.0101, indicating that exploitation interest increased after public disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges having access to a VM with VMware Tools installed and managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled may exploit this vulnerability…

more

to escalate privileges to root on the same VM.

CWE(s)
CWE-267
KEV Date Added
30 October 2025

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1134 Access Token Manipulation Stealth
Adversaries may modify access tokens to operate under a different user or system security context to perform actions and bypass access controls.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548.001 Setuid and Setgid Privilege Escalation
An adversary may abuse configurations where an application has the setuid or setgid bits set in order to get code running in a different (and possibly more privileged) user’s context.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548.003 Sudo and Sudo Caching Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may perform sudo caching and/or use the sudoers file to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
T1123 Audio Capture Collection
An adversary can leverage a computer's peripheral devices (e.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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CVE-2024-53150Same product: Debian Debian Linuxboth on KEV
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CVE-2023-0266Same product: Debian Debian Linuxboth on KEV
CVE-2024-36971Same product: Debian Debian Linuxboth on KEV
CVE-2013-0643Same product: Linux Linux Kernelboth on KEV

Affected Assets

vmware
aria operations
8.0 — 8.18.5
vmware
cloud foundation
4.0 — 5.2.2
vmware
cloud foundation operations
9.0
vmware
open vm tools
13.0.0 · 11.2.0 — 12.5.4
vmware
telco cloud infrastructure
2.2 — 3.0
vmware
telco cloud platform
4.0 — 5.0.1
debian
debian linux
11.0
vmware
tools
12.5.0 — 12.5.4 · 13.0.0.0 — 13.0.5.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 10 hardening rules · 4 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V13.2.2
  • V3.7.3
  • V9.2.2
  • V9.2.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

Least privilege directly requires that privileges grant only the minimal actions needed, preventing definition of overly broad privileges that include unintended unsafe operations.

AC-5 Separation of Duties partial match

Separation of duties splits high-risk actions across multiple privileges so that no single privilege can perform the full unsafe sequence.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

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

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

Defining and enforcing least-privilege permissions directly reduces the chance that a privilege permits unintended unsafe actions.

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.

A.8.18 Use of privileged utility programs mostly match
mitigates

Use of privileged utility programs restricts dangerous tools but does not address unsafe actions within assigned privileges.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
mitigates

Access control policy can limit unsafe privilege use but does not define safe actions for each privilege.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
degrades

Access rights assignment can restrict privileges to intended actions, yet does not guarantee the privilege itself is safe.

A.5.3 Segregation of duties partial match
mitigates

Segregation of duties reduces risk of unsafe actions by splitting privileges but does not address unsafe privilege definitions.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
mitigates

Privileged access rights control can restrict unsafe privileges, yet does not ensure the privilege definition itself is safe.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
mitigates

Secure development lifecycle can catch unsafe privilege definitions during design but does not prevent them at runtime.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 9 (1 rule)
  • V-271725 OL 9 must require users to provide a password for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-267
Ubuntu 22.04 (3 rules)
  • V-260470 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, when booted, must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-267
  • V-260529 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS must be configured so that remote X connections are disabled, unless to fulfill documented and validated mission requirements. prevents CWE-267
  • V-260542 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS must prevent direct login into the root account. prevents CWE-267

References