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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2025-41244 kev in the critical feed json

VMSA-2025-0015: VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools updates address multiple vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-41244,CVE-2025-41245, CVE-2025-41246)

published last yr. modified 22d ago also EUVD-2025-31589

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2025-10-30
epss
16.4%
EPSS 16.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

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

  • VMware VCF operations 9.0.1.0
  • VMware VMware tools 12.5.4, 13.0.5.0
  • VMware VMware Aria Operations 8.18.5
  • VMware VMware Cloud Foundation 8.18.5
  • VMware VMware Telco Cloud Platform 8.18.5
  • VMware VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure 8.18.5
  • open-vm-tools Debian 12 2:12.2.0-1+deb12u4
  • open-vm-tools Debian 13 2:12.5.0-2+deb13u1
  • open-vm-tools Debian 14 2:13.0.5-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-41244

  • open-vm-tools Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 2:12.3.5-3~ubuntu0.22.04.3
  • open-vm-tools Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 2:12.5.0-1~ubuntu0.24.04.2
  • open-vm-tools Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 2:11.3.0-2ubuntu0~ubuntu20.04.8+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-41244

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • open-vm-tools RHEL 8 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1
  • open-vm-tools-sdmp RHEL 8 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1
  • open-vm-tools-desktop RHEL 8 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1
  • open-vm-tools-salt-minion RHEL 8 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1
  • open-vm-tools RHEL 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-sdmp RHEL 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-test RHEL 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-desktop RHEL 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2025:17512RHSA-2025:17511RHSA-2025:17510RHSA-2025:17509RHSA-2025:17446RHSA-2025:17445

  • open-vm-tools Linux Micro 6.1 13.0.10-slfo.1.1_1.1
  • open-vm-tools SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 13.0.5-160000.1.1
  • open-vm-tools Linux Micro 6.1 13.0.5-slfo.1.1_1.1
  • open-vm-tools Linux Micro 6.0 13.0.5-1.1
  • open-vm-tools SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP7, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP6, SLE Module for Containers 15 SP7 +4 more 13.0.5-150600.3.21.1
  • open-vm-tools SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4, SLES for SAP 15 SP3 +16 more 13.0.0-150300.64.1
  • open-vm-tools SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP7, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP6, SLE Module for Containers 15 SP7 +4 more 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
  • open-vm-tools SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 13.0.5-4.92.1

suse advisories SUSE-RU-2026:20677-1SUSE-SU-2026:20100-1SUSE-SU-2026:20114-1SUSE-SU-2025:20866-1SUSE-SU-2025:20853-1SUSE-SU-2025:03585-1

  • open-vm-tools openSUSE Leap 16.0 13.0.5-160000.1.1
  • open-vm-tools openSUSE Tumbleweed 13.0.5-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20067-1openSUSE-SU-2025:15595-1

  • open-vm-tools AlmaLinux 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-sdmp AlmaLinux 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-test AlmaLinux 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-desktop AlmaLinux 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools-salt-minion AlmaLinux 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools AlmaLinux 10 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1
  • open-vm-tools-sdmp AlmaLinux 10 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1
  • open-vm-tools-test AlmaLinux 10 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1

almalinux advisories ALSA-2025:17428ALSA-2025:17429ALSA-2025:17509

  • open-vm-tools Rocky Linux 9 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
  • open-vm-tools Rocky Linux 8 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1
  • open-vm-tools Rocky Linux 10 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2025:17428RLSA-2025:17509RLSA-2025:17429

  • open-vm-tools Azure Linux 3.0 12.3.5-3

azure linux advisories AZL-93039

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Is CVE-2025-41244 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2025-41244 updated cvss 7.8

open-vm-tools: Local privilege escalation in open-vm-tools

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) open-vm-tools 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.3.5-2.el8_10.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17509
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) open-vm-tools 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2, open-vm-tools-test 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17428
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 10) open-vm-tools 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1, open-vm-tools-test 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.5.0-1.el10_0.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17429
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream AUS (v.8.4) open-vm-tools 11.2.0-2.el8_4.5, open-vm-tools-sdmp 11.2.0-2.el8_4.5, open-vm-tools-desktop 11.2.0-2.el8_4.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17512
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream AUS (v.8.6) open-vm-tools 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6, open-vm-tools-sdmp 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6, open-vm-tools-desktop 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.8.6) open-vm-tools 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6, open-vm-tools-sdmp 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6, open-vm-tools-desktop 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17511
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.8.8) open-vm-tools 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17510
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.9.0) open-vm-tools 11.3.5-1.el9_0.6, open-vm-tools-sdmp 11.3.5-1.el9_0.6, open-vm-tools-test 11.3.5-1.el9_0.6, open-vm-tools-desktop 11.3.5-1.el9_0.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17452
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v.9.2) open-vm-tools 12.1.5-1.el9_2.5, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.1.5-1.el9_2.5, open-vm-tools-test 12.1.5-1.el9_2.5, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.1.5-1.el9_2.5, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.1.5-1.el9_2.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17446
show 6 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS (v.9.4) open-vm-tools 12.3.5-2.el9_4.1, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.3.5-2.el9_4.1, open-vm-tools-test 12.3.5-2.el9_4.1, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.3.5-2.el9_4.1, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.3.5-2.el9_4.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17445
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream EUS EXTENSION (v.8.4) open-vm-tools 11.2.0-2.el8_4.5, open-vm-tools-sdmp 11.2.0-2.el8_4.5, open-vm-tools-desktop 11.2.0-2.el8_4.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17512
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream TUS (v.8.6) open-vm-tools 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6, open-vm-tools-sdmp 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6, open-vm-tools-desktop 11.3.5-1.el8_6.6
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17511
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream TUS (v.8.8) open-vm-tools 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5, open-vm-tools-sdmp 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5, open-vm-tools-desktop 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5, open-vm-tools-salt-minion 12.1.5-2.el8_8.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:17510
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 open-vm-tools, open-vm-tools-test, open-vm-tools-desktop
    not affected: vulnerable code not present
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    not affected: component not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Added to CISA KEV
  3. CISA SSVC: exploitation active
  4. CISA patch deadline

Known exploited

Added
last yr.
Patch by
2025-11-20 (11mo ago)
Ransomware
Not known
Required action
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Vendor, product
Broadcom, VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools
CISA name
Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools Privilege Defined with Unsafe Actions Vulnerability

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
last yr.

Exploit prediction

16.38% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • blog.nviso.eu https://blog.nviso.eu/2025/09/29/you-name-it-vmware-elevates-it-cve-2025-41244/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • VMware VCF operations
  • VMware VMware tools
  • VMware VMware Aria Operations
  • VMware VMware Cloud Foundation
  • VMware VMware Telco Cloud Platform
  • VMware VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-267 Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.