Root privilege escalation via crafted network packet
Published Sep 17, 2024 · Updated Oct 21, 2025
Privilege escalation in VMware vCenter Server 7.0 and 8.0 allows remote authenticated users to gain root access via a crafted packet. Broadcom has not disclosed the affected component or the incorrect operation performed while processing the packet. Exploitation requires network access and low privileges, and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x and 5.x is affected because it contains vCenter Server.
Summary
What happened
Privilege escalation in VMware vCenter Server 7.0 and 8.0 allows remote authenticated users to gain root access via a crafted packet. Broadcom has not disclosed the affected component or the incorrect operation performed while processing the packet. Exploitation requires network access and low privileges, and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x and 5.x is affected because it contains vCenter Server.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-38813
- Published
- Sep 17, 2024
- Updated
- Oct 21, 2025
- Vendor
- VMware
- Product
- VMware vCenter Server
- Classifications
- CWE-273, CWE-250, T1068
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 17, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 21, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=7.0 <7.0_u3s
- Affected versionversion=7.0 <7.0 U3s
- Affected versionversion=8.0 <8.0_u3b
- Affected versionversion=8.0 <8.0 U3b
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Reported exploitation
- Broadcom confirmation of exploitation in the wildreported exploitation
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities entryknown exploited catalog
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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