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Cloud FoundationApplication · VMware

CVE-2021-22050

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-02-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.11 / 4.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
ESXi contains a slow HTTP POST denial-of-service vulnerability in rhttpproxy. A malicious actor with network access to ESXi may exploit this issue to create a denial-of-service condition by overwhelming rhttpproxy service with multiple requests.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-770

The application allocates memory, connections, or handles in response to a request without enforcing any cap, so a modest amount of malicious traffic exhausts the resource and denies service to everyone else. The fix is enforcing quotas, limits, and timeouts on what any single request or client can consume.

General guidance for the resource allocation without limits class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Cloud FoundationApplication
Affected:>= 3.0, < 3.11>= 4.0, < 4.4
EsxiOperating system
Affected:= 6.5= 6.7= 7.0

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.11 / 4.4 or later
Fixed in 3.114.4
Vendor patch www.vmware.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

ESXi 7.0 U3 or later (or latest applicable patch for ESXi 6.5/6.7)

  1. 1. Determine the current ESXi version by running 'esxcli system version get' on the host
  2. 2. Identify the appropriate fixed version for your ESXi release: ESXi 6.5 → apply ESXi 6.5 PXX or later, ESXi 6.7 → apply ESXi 6.7 PXX or later, ESXi 7.0 → upgrade to ESXi 7.0 U3 or later
  3. 3. Download the appropriate patch or update from VMware Customer Connect (https://customerconnect.vmware.com)
  4. 4. Upload the patch to a datastore accessible by the ESXi host
  5. 5. Enable maintenance mode on the host: 'esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable true'
  6. 6. Install the patch: 'esxcli software vib update --depot=/vmfs/volumes/[datastore]/[patch-file].zip'
  7. 7. Reboot the host to complete the patch installation
  8. 8. Disable maintenance mode: 'esxcli system maintenanceMode set --enable false'
Caveat Patches may require host reboot; ensure proper HA/cluster failover configuration before initiating maintenance

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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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-2021-22050 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