basicsecurity.net
Proof, not just disclosure.
Threats / Broadcom / CVE-2025-41244
CVE-2025-41244 · EUVD no mirror located · GCVE no mirror located Verified 2026-06-22

Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and Tools vulnerability

Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing local non-administrative users to gain root access on managed VMs when SDMP is enabled.

Verdict

Today item — known-exploited.

A local attacker with non-administrative access to a VM running VMware Tools managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled can exploit unsafe privilege definitions to escalate to root, compromising VM security and enabling further lateral movement.

CISA KEV Yes · 2025-10-303EPSS 0.07606 (verify live)4Exploit Public PoC5
01

Is it exploitable?

— the evidence, ranked above the score
Exploit available
Public proof-of-concept exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
5 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-10-30).
CISA KEV ↗Confirmed
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.07606 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Broadcom, VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
NVD ↗Reported
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-267 CWE-267 — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
NVD ↗Reported
WeaknessCWE-267 · CWE-267Authorization / access control
02

Who’s exploiting it?

— attribution turns risk into urgency
Attribution not established

No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.

03

Why it matters

— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board
1

Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1

Attacker
I gain initial access as a non-administrative local user on a VM running VMware Tools.
Business
Attacker establishes foothold within virtualized infrastructure despite restricted user privileges.
2

Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2

Attacker
I identify that the VM is managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled, exposing unsafe privilege definitions.
Business
Management plane misconfiguration creates exploitable trust relationships between management and guest systems.
3

Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3

Attacker
I exploit the unsafe privilege definitions to escalate my privileges to root on the VM.
Business
Attacker gains complete control of the guest VM, enabling data exfiltration, malware deployment, and lateral movement.
04

What to do

— defensible action
  • Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05

Coverage & confidence

— what we know, and what we don’t

Established (cited)

  • KEV listing (CISA)
  • EPSS probability (FIRST)
  • Public PoC available (VulnCheck)
  • 5 reported-exploitation source(s)
  • CWE weakness mapping (NVD)
  • Public exploit availability
  • Catalogued by vmware (CNA)
  • Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden

  • No EUVD / GCVE mirror in feed — single-authority dependency for the identifier.
  • EPSS & exposure are time-varying; verify live at the source.
  • Threat-actor attribution not established from feed data — absence of a name is not absence of compromise.
  • No finder/reporter credit recorded in the public CVE entry — the work behind this find is unattributed.
  • Disclosure & credit2
    Catalogued by vmwareCNA
    Credited with finding itNo finder named in the public CVE record — the work behind this find is unattributed.