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EsxApplication · VMware

CVE-2011-1785

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2011-05-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
VMware ESXi 4.0 and 4.1 and ESX 4.0 and 4.1 allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (socket exhaustion) via unspecified network traffic.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

VMware ESXi 4.0, 4.1 and ESX 4.0, 4.1 contain a denial of service vulnerability where remote attackers can cause socket exhaustion through unspecified network traffic, leading to service unavailability. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable and does not require authentication.

MitigationApply VMware security patches for ESXi/ESX 4.x or upgrade to a supported version. If patching is not immediately feasible, implement network-level access controls to limit exposure to untrusted networks.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
EsxApplication
Affected:= 4.0= 4.1
EsxiApplication
Affected:= 4.0= 4.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the VMware product type
    Run 'vmware -v' on the host console or check the ESXi/ESX welcome screen to confirm whether the system is ESXi or ESX
    Affected if The system is VMware ESXi or ESX
  2. Check the installed version
    Run 'vmware -v' or use 'esxcli system version get' to obtain the exact version number
    Affected if The version is exactly 4.0 or 4.1
  3. Verify network connectivity is enabled
    Check if the management network or vmknic interfaces are configured and active using 'esxcli network ip interface list' or 'vim-cmd hostsvc/net/info'
    Affected if Network management interfaces are up and reachable
  4. Check for socket exhaustion indicators
    Run 'esxtop' and examine network socket counts, or check 'vmkstat -s' for socket allocation failures
    Affected if Socket allocation is failing or network connections are being refused

A system is affected if it runs VMware ESXi or ESX version 4.0 or 4.1 and has active network connectivity, as the vulnerability allows remote unauthenticated attackers to cause socket exhaustion.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply VMware security patches for ESXi/ESX 4.x or upgrade to a supported version. If patching is not immediately feasible, implement network-level access controls to limit exposure to untrusted networks.

Fix this in Esx Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-1785 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data