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ToolsApplication · VMware

CVE-2022-31676

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-08-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.3.25 / 12.1.0 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
VMware Tools (12.0.0, 11.x.y and 10.x.y) contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with local non-administrative access to the Guest OS can escalate privileges as a root user in the virtual machine.

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-269

Privileges are granted, or fail to be dropped, incorrectly, so an action runs with more power than it should. An attacker who reaches that path inherits the excess privilege. The fix is least-privilege throughout, with explicit, checked transitions whenever privilege changes.

General guidance for the improper privilege management 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
ToolsApplication
Affected:>= 10.0.0, < 12.1.0>= 10.0.0, < 10.3.25>= 11.0.0, < 12.1.0
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0= 11.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 36= 37
Ontap Select Deploy Administration UtilityApplication
Affected:all versions

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 10.3.25 / 12.1.0 or later
Fixed in 10.3.2512.1.0
Vendor patch www.openwall.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

VMware Tools 12.1.0 or later

  1. Identify the current VMware Tools version installed using 'vmware-toolbox-cmd -v' or 'vmware-tools-cli --version'
  2. Download VMware Tools 12.1.0 or later from the official VMware website (my.vmware.com)
  3. For Linux guests: Run 'sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-tools' to uninstall the current version, then install the new version using the installer
  4. For Windows guests: Use the MSI installer to upgrade VMware Tools through the vSphere Client or ESXi host
  5. Alternatively, use the vSphere Client to trigger a Tools upgrade: right-click the VM → Guest OS → Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the Tools version again
  7. Restart the VM or reload the Tools services using 'sudo systemctl restart vmware-tools' (Linux) or restarting the service (Windows)
Caveat Major version upgrades of VMware Tools may require VM restart and could have compatibility implications with older vSphere/ESXi versions; ensure your virtualization infrastructure supports the target Tools version

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-2022-31676 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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