VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges having access to a VM with VMware Tools installed and managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled may exploit this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root on the same VM.
CVE-2025-41244
Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-10-30), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 9.0(high)
- EG Risk
- 81(Attend)EG Risk 81/100SSVC: Attend
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity90% × 45%Exploitation100% × 40%Automatability0% × 15%Action: Remediate soon — notable exploitation risk. - EPSS PROB
- 8%
- EPSS %ILE
- 95%
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
Published
September 29, 2025
Last Modified
November 6, 2025
Advisory Details (6)
Auto-updated Jun 3, 2026Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA
Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog | CISA. Listed in CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-41244Support Content Notification - Support Portal - Broadcom support portal
https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36149You name it, VMware elevates it (CVE-2025-41244)
https://blog.nviso.eu/2025/09/29/you-name-it-vmware-elevates-it-cve-2025-41244/[SECURITY] [DLA 4316-1] open-vm-tools security update
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00000.htmloss-security - [Security Advisory] open-vm-tools: Local privilege escalation (CVE-2025-41244)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/09/29/10Home - Support Portal - Broadcom support portal - Support Portal
http://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/support-content-view/-/support-content/Security%20Advisories/VMSA-2025-0015--VMware-Aria-Operations-and-VMware-Tools-updates-address-multiple-vulnerabilities--CVE-2025-41244-CVE-2025-41245--CVE-2025-41246-/36149Vendor Advisories for CVE-2025-41244(9)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
- RHSA-2025:17509Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17511Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17510Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17512Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17452Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17445Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17446Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- RHSA-2025:17428Red Hat Product SecurityHigh
Red Hat Security Advisory: open-vm-tools security update
- +1 more
Patch Availability(10)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | open-vm-tools-sdmp (2:12.3.5-3~ubuntu0.22.04.3) @ jammy | 2026-09-19 | ubuntu |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:11.3.5-1.el9_0.6 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:12.5.0-1.el10_0.1 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:12.5.0-1.el9_6.2 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:12.3.5-2.el8_10.1 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:11.3.5-1.el8_6.6 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:12.3.5-2.el9_4.1 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:12.1.5-2.el8_8.5 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:12.1.5-1.el9_2.5 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | open-vm-tools-0:11.2.0-2.el8_4.5 | 2025-10-07 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| open-vm-tools | 2:11.2.5-2 ... 2:11.2.5-2+deb11u4 (6 versions) | 2:11.2.5-2+deb11u5 | — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| open-vm-tools | 2:12.2.0-1 ... 2:12.2.0-1+deb12u3 (7 versions) | 2:12.2.0-1+deb12u4 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| open-vm-tools | 2:12.5.0-2 | 2:12.5.0-2+deb13u1 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| open-vm-tools | 2:12.5.0-2 ... 2:13.0.5-1~bpo13+1 (7 versions) | 2:13.0.5-1 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(2)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 99× in last 7d / 425× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 1,532 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-09-19 07:20 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-19 07:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-19 03:18 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-19 03:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-18 23:16 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-18 23:16 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-18 23:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-18 19:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-18 19:20 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-09-18 19:15 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-18 19:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-18 15:13 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-18 15:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-18 14:15 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-09-18 11:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-18 11:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-18 07:09 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-18 07:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-18 03:07 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-18 03:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-17 23:05 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-17 23:05 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-17 23:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-17 19:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-17 19:03 UTCVendor advisory
Show 75 moreShow fewer
- 2026-09-17 19:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-17 14:58 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-17 14:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-17 10:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-17 10:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-17 06:54 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-17 06:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-17 02:52 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-17 02:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-16 22:49 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-16 22:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-16 18:46 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-16 18:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-16 14:44 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-16 14:44 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-16 14:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-16 14:10 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-09-16 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-16 10:41 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-16 10:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-16 06:36 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-16 06:36 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-16 06:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-16 05:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-16 02:34 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-16 02:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-15 22:32 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-15 22:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-15 18:30 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-15 18:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-15 14:28 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-15 14:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-15 10:26 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-15 10:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-15 06:23 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-15 06:23 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-15 06:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-15 02:21 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-15 02:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-14 22:19 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-14 22:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-14 19:24 UTCCISA KEV update
- 2026-09-14 18:17 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-14 18:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-14 14:15 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-14 14:15 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-14 10:13 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-14 10:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-14 06:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-14 06:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-14 02:09 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-14 02:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-13 22:07 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-13 22:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-13 18:04 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-13 18:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-13 14:02 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-13 14:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-13 10:00 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-13 10:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-13 05:58 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-13 05:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-13 01:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-13 01:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-12 21:54 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-12 21:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-12 17:52 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-12 17:52 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-12 17:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-12 15:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-09-12 13:50 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-12 13:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-12 09:48 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-09-12 09:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-09-12 05:46 UTCVendor advisory
Publicly available exploits
(1 reference)Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- GitHub PoCNULL200OK/CVE-2025-41244First seen Nov 11, 2025
CVE-2025-41244 is a critical local privilege escalation vulnerability in VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2025-41244?
When was CVE-2025-41244 disclosed?
Is CVE-2025-41244 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2025-41244?
Which products are affected by CVE-2025-41244?
How do I remediate CVE-2025-41244?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2025-41244
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2025-41244?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.