CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-37085 — VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2 CISA KEV

VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can gain full access to an ESXi host that was previously configured to use AD for user management https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/joining-vsphere-hosts-to-active-directory.html by re-creating the configured AD group ('ESXi Admins' by default) after it was deleted from AD.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (3.1)
Published
2024-06-25
CISA KEV
Known exploited
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-287, CWE-305

Affected products

  • vmware / cloud_foundation
  • vmware / esxi / 7.0
  • vmware / esxi / 8.0

Showing 3 representative product identities from 13 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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