CVE-2025-41244: Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools Privilege Defined with Unsafe Actions Vulnerability
- Is it exploited?
Yes. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on , 31 days after the CVE record was published.
- How likely is exploitation in the next 30 days?
- 8.6%
EPSS score, percentile 95.1 of all scored records
- How severe?
- 7.8 High
CVSS v3.1 base score, given by the CNA
- What should I do?
CISA deadline . Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
The CVE record links no vendor advisory, patch or mitigation.
- Which versions are affected?
Affected
- from 9.0.x to before 9.0.1.0
- from 13.x.x.x to before 13.0.5.0
- from 12.5.x to before 12.5.4
- from 8.18.x to before 8.18.5
- from 5.x to before 8.18.5
- from 4.x to before 8.18.5
and 4 more in the table below
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of ; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of ; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of . About the data.
What to do
Required action, set by CISA
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
CISA due date for this action: .
Advisories and patches
The CVE record links no vendor advisory, patch or mitigation.
Linked from CISA's catalog entry
- https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36149
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-41244
Affected products and versions
As listed in the CVE record.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 9.0.x to before 9.0.1.0 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 13.x.x.x to before 13.0.5.0 |
| Affected | from 12.5.x to before 12.5.4 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 8.18.x to before 8.18.5 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 5.x to before 8.18.5 |
| Affected | from 4.x to before 8.18.5 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 5.x to before 8.18.5 |
| Affected | from 4.x to before 8.18.5 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
| Status | Versions |
|---|---|
| Affected | from 3.x to before 8.18.5 |
| Affected | from 2.x to before 8.18.5 |
Versions not listed are: unaffected.
Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of . About the data.
About this vulnerability
Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a privilege defined with unsafe actions 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 to escalate privileges to root on the same VM.
Summary: CISA's KEV catalog, as of .
- CISA added CVE-2025-41244 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 30 Oct 2025.
- CISA's ransomware flag for this entry is "Unknown": no evidence of ransomware use in the catalog, which is not proof of none.
- The due date CISA sets for the required action is 20 Nov 2025.
- The CVE record was published on 29 Sep 2025, 31 days before it was added to KEV.
- The CVE record carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (High), given by its CNA.
- FIRST's EPSS model puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 8.6% (percentile 95.1), as of 28 Oct 2026.
- CISA's SSVC assessment in the CVE record: exploitation active, automatable no, technical impact total.
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of ; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of ; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of . About the data.
Description
VMSA-2025-0015: VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools updates address multiple vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-41244,CVE-2025-41245, CVE-2025-41246)
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 to escalate privileges to root on the same VM.
Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of . About the data.
Weakness
CWE and CAPEC are maintained by MITRE; the entries are those named in the CVE record and the KEV entry.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| CVE record published | |
| Added to CISA KEV | |
| CISA due date for the required action | |
| CVE record last updated |
References
More exploited Broadcom vulnerabilities
- CVE-2026-41709: Broadcom VMWare ESX Insufficient Logging Vulnerability
- CVE-2026-59310: Broadcom VMware vCenter Path Traversal Vulnerability
- CVE-2026-22719: Broadcom VMware Aria Operations Command Injection Vulnerability
- CVE-2024-37079: Broadcom VMware vCenter Server Out-of-bounds Write Vulnerability
- CVE-2025-1976: Broadcom Brocade Fabric OS Code Injection Vulnerability