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Cloud FoundationApplication · VMware

CVE-2023-20879

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.5 or later.
See remediation →
69/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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 Aria Operations contains a Local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with administrative privileges in the Aria Operations application can gain root access to the underlying operating system.

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 Aria Operations contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability where a malicious actor with existing administrative privileges in the application can escalate to root access on the underlying operating system, likely through improper privilege isolation or command injection in application components.

MitigationApply vendor-supplied patches for CVE-2023-20879 when available, and limit administrative access to trusted personnel while monitoring for suspicious privilege escalation activity.

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
Cloud FoundationApplication
Affected:>= 4.0, <= 4.5
Vrealize OperationsApplication
Affected:= 8.6.0= 8.10.0

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

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

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 installed VMware product
    Run 'voma -m product' or check /etc/vmware/vcops/product.conf for the product name (VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware vRealize Operations)
    Affected if Product is VMware Cloud Foundation or VMware vRealize Operations
  2. Determine the installed version
    Run 'voma -m product' or check /etc/vmware/vcops/product.conf for the version number
    Affected if Version is VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 through 4.5 inclusive, or VMware vRealize Operations 8.6.0 or 8.10.0
  3. Verify administrative user access
    Review user accounts with administrative roles in the application via the admin UI or by querying the admin user table in the database
    Affected if Any administrative-level accounts exist in the application (this is a prerequisite for exploitation)
  4. Audit for unexpected root-level processes or cron jobs
    Run 'ps -ef | grep root' and 'crontab -l -u root' to inspect running processes and scheduled tasks created by unauthorized users
    Affected if Unfamiliar processes or cron jobs running as root that were not deployed by your organization

You are affected if you run VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0-4.5 or vRealize Operations 8.6.0/8.10.0 AND have any administrative users in the application, as this vulnerability requires existing admin privileges to perform the privilege escalation.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.5
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor-supplied patches for CVE-2023-20879 when available, and limit administrative access to trusted personnel while monitoring for suspicious privilege escalation activity.

Recommended fix High confidence

vRealize Operations 8.6.1 or later / 8.10.1 or later; Cloud Foundation 4.6 or later (or latest supported release)

  1. 1. Identify the exact VMware Aria Operations or Cloud Foundation version currently deployed using the vRealize Operations Manager console or Cloud Foundation UI.
  2. 2. For vRealize Operations 8.6.0: Upgrade to version 8.6.1 or later which contains the security fix.
  3. 3. For vRealize Operations 8.10.0: Upgrade to version 8.10.1 or later which contains the security fix.
  4. 4. For Cloud Foundation 4.0 through 4.5: Upgrade to a version beyond 4.5 that includes the security patches for CVE-2023-20879.
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify the build version matches the expected patched release.
  6. 6. Validate that the local privilege escalation vulnerability is no longer present by confirming the patched version is running.
Caveat Standard upgrade precautions apply - review VMware release notes for known issues and ensure backup/快照 before upgrading production systems

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

Fix this in Cloud Foundation Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get the upgrade done

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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2023-20879 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
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data