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Aria OperationsApplication · VMware

CVE-2026-22721

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.2.3 / 8.18.6 or later.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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 Aria Operations contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with privileges in vCenter to access Aria Operations may leverage this vulnerability to obtain administrative access in VMware Aria Operations. To remediate CVE-2026-22721, apply the patches listed in the 'Fixed Version' column of the 'Response Matrix' found in  VMSA-2026-0001 https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36947 .

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
Aria OperationsApplication
Affected:>= 8.0, < 8.18.6
Cloud FoundationApplication
Affected:>= 4.0, < 5.2.3>= 9.0, < 9.0.2.0
Telco Cloud InfrastructureApplication
Affected:>= 2.2, <= 3.0
Telco Cloud PlatformApplication
Affected:>= 4.0, <= 5.1

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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 5.2.3 / 8.18.6 / 9.0.2.0 or later
Fixed in 5.2.38.18.69.0.2.0
Vendor patch support.broadcom.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Aria Operations: 8.18.6 | Cloud Foundation: 5.2.3 or 9.0.2.0 (depending on your branch)

  1. Review the VMSA-2026-0001 security advisory at https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36947 for complete patch details and Response Matrix
  2. Determine your specific product version (Aria Operations, Cloud Foundation, Telco Cloud Infrastructure, or Telco Cloud Platform) from the affected versions list
  3. Download the applicable patch from Broadcom Support Portal
  4. Create a full backup of your current Aria Operations deployment
  5. Schedule a maintenance window as the upgrade may require downtime
  6. Follow the standard upgrade procedure for your product version: for Aria Operations, use the standard upgrade process via the admin UI or CLI
  7. After upgrade, verify the version matches the fixed release (8.18.6 for Aria Operations, 5.2.3 or 9.0.2.0 for Cloud Foundation)
  8. Validate that administrative privileges are functioning correctly post-upgrade
Caveat Review release notes for your specific version for any configuration or compatibility changes before upgrading

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-2026-22721 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
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