+44 1865 950 828 Secure Your Business
Actively exploited

CVE-2025-41244 Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools Privilege Defined with Unsafe Actions 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.

From the CISA KEV catalogue version 2026.11.06, with Cybergen analysis. Updated 6 Nov 2026.

Our Assessment

Should You Worry?

Patch urgentlyCybergen assessment
  • CISA confirmed exploitation in the wild and added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 30 Oct 2025.
  • Rated High severity (CVSS 7.8, scored by Vendor).
  • It has been in the catalogue for 372 days. Systems still unpatched now have almost certainly been scanned for it.
The Vulnerability

What It Is

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.

Affected Versions

ProductVersions
VMware VCF operations9.0.x to before 9.0.1.0
VMware VMware tools13.x.x.x to before 13.0.5.0
12.5.x to before 12.5.4
VMware VMware Aria Operations8.18.x to before 8.18.5
VMware VMware Cloud Foundation5.x to before 8.18.5
4.x to before 8.18.5
VMware VMware Telco Cloud Platform5.x to before 8.18.5
4.x to before 8.18.5
VMware VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure3.x to before 8.18.5
2.x to before 8.18.5

From the public CVE record, as supplied by the vendor. Always confirm against the vendor advisory.

From Watch to Action

What To Do Now

  1. 1

    Find it

    Search your asset inventory and external attack surface for Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools. Include cloud images, appliances and anything a supplier runs for you.

    Attack Surface Management
  2. 2

    Fix it

    Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

    Vulnerability Management
  3. 3

    Hunt for compromise

    If an affected system was reachable before you patched, assume it may have been hit. Check logs, new accounts, web shells and outbound connections from the date of exposure.

    Incident Response
  4. 4

    Prove it is fixed

    Rescan or test the system after patching. Upgrades that fail silently and forgotten secondary instances are common.

    Penetration Testing

Vendor Advisories

Regulation

The Compliance Clock

Cyber EssentialsRated high, so if it affects devices in your Cyber Essentials scope, the update must be installed within 14 days of the vendor releasing it.NIS2If exploitation causes a significant incident, essential and important entities owe their CSIRT an early warning within 24 hours and a notification within 72 hours.DORAFinancial entities must classify ICT incidents and send an initial notification for a major incident within strict deadlines, with exploited flaws a common cause.US federal (BOD 22-01)Federal civilian agencies had until 20 Nov 2025 to remediate. A sensible benchmark for everyone else.

General guidance, not legal advice. Your obligations depend on your sector, scope and jurisdiction.

Stay Ahead

More Exploited Broadcom Flaws

Get alerts for BroadcomWe email you when a new Broadcom vulnerability is confirmed as exploited. Add more vendors on Threat Watch.

By signing up you agree to receive Threat Watch alerts. Unsubscribe at any time. See our Privacy Policy.

CVE-2026-41709Broadcom VMWare ESX Insufficient Logging VulnerabilityAdded 28 Oct 2026CVE-2026-59310 · RansomwareBroadcom VMware vCenter Path Traversal VulnerabilityAdded 18 Aug 2026CVE-2026-22719Broadcom VMware Aria Operations Command Injection VulnerabilityAdded 3 Mar 2026CVE-2024-37079Broadcom VMware vCenter Server Out-of-bounds Write VulnerabilityAdded 23 Jan 2026CVE-2025-1976Broadcom Brocade Fabric OS Code Injection VulnerabilityAdded 28 Apr 2025

All 6 exploited Broadcom vulnerabilities

Not Sure If You Are Exposed?

Our attack surface and vulnerability teams can check your internet-facing estate for CVE-2025-41244 and every other exploited flaw on the list.

Check My Exposure
Evidence

Sources

  1. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue
  2. NVD: CVE-2025-41244
  3. CVE record: CVE-2025-41244
  4. FIRST EPSS
  5. support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36
  6. support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/support-content-view/-/support-content/Security%20Advisories/VMSA-202