Overview
The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-41244, is present in VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools. It allows a malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges to escalate their privileges to root on a Virtual Machine (VM). This is significant as it provides the potential for a system compromise or data leakage, posing a severe risk to organizations using these products.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-41244
Severity: High (7.8)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise and data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
VMware Aria Operations | All versions with SDMP enabled
VMware Tools | All versions when managed by Aria Operations
How the Exploit Works
A malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges on a VM that has VMware Tools installed and is managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled can exploit this vulnerability. The attacker uses the vulnerability to escalate their privileges to root, giving them full control over the VM. This exploit does not require any user interaction, which makes it highly dangerous and easy to exploit.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example of how this vulnerability might be exploited using a shell command:
# This is a conceptual script to exploit the vulnerability
echo "Exploiting CVE-2025-41244"
echo "Escalating privileges to root"
# This is a placeholder for the actual exploit code
./exploit_CVE-2025-41244
echo "Privileges escalated to root"Please note that this is a hypothetical example and the actual exploit details are not disclosed to prevent misuse.
Mitigation Guidance
Users are advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it is available. In the meantime, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide a temporary mitigation. Regularly updating and patching your systems can help prevent such vulnerabilities in the future.
