Aria OperationsApplication · VMware
CVE-2024-38831
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 · uneditedVMware Aria Operations contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with local administrative privileges can insert malicious commands into the properties file to escalate privileges to a root user on the appliance running VMware Aria Operations.
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 confidenceVMware Aria Operations has a local privilege escalation vulnerability where an authenticated local administrator can inject malicious commands into application properties files, enabling execution with root privileges on the underlying appliance OS.
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
Aria OperationsApplication
>= 8.0, < 8.18.2
Cloud FoundationApplication
>= 4.0, <= 5.2CVSS 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
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify VMware Aria Operations versionAccess the Aria Operations admin UI and navigate to Administration > System Settings > About, or run 'vrms -v' via SSH to the appliance. Compare the displayed version against the affected range.Affected if The installed version is 8.0 or higher but lower than 8.18.2
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Verify VMware Cloud Foundation versionAccess the Cloud Foundation admin portal or use the SDDC Manager interface to check the product version. Compare against the affected range.Affected if The installed version is 4.0 or higher but less than or equal to 5.2
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Audit local administrator accountsList all local user accounts with administrative privileges on the appliance OS using 'localusers' or by reviewing /etc/passwd and group membership files.Affected if There are local administrator accounts beyond the default primary administrator, or unexpected accounts exist with root-level privileges
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Inspect application properties files for unauthorized modificationsExamine properties files in the application configuration directories, particularly looking for shell commands, script references, or unexpected values in property definitions.Affected if Properties files contain suspicious command injections, unexpected executable paths, or modifications that do not match known baseline configurations
Your environment is affected if you run VMware Aria Operations versions 8.0 through 8.18.1 or VMware Cloud Foundation versions 4.0 through 5.2, and local administrator access exists that could modify application properties files.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped8.18.2
Apply vendor-supplied patches when available. In the interim, strictly limit local administrative access, implement file integrity monitoring on configuration directories, and audit properties files for unauthorized modifications.
Aria Operations 8.18.2 or later
- Upgrade VMware Aria Operations to version 8.18.2 or later
- Verify the upgrade was successful by confirming the new version is running
- For VMware Cloud Foundation, apply the corresponding update that includes the Aria Operations 8.18.2 fix
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Aria Operations
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-38831 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-38831 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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