Unauthorized Access Vulnerability in VMware ESXi Affecting VMX Processes
CVE-2021-22042
7.8HIGH
Key Information:
- Vendor
Vmware
- Vendor
- CVE Published:
- 16 February 2022
What is CVE-2021-22042?
VMware ESXi has a vulnerability that allows unauthorized access to the settingsd service, driven by specific circumstances within the VMX process. This could potentially enable malicious actors who possess privileges within the VMX context to inadvertently access sensitive service configurations running under high privilege levels.

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Affected Version(s)
VMware ESXi and VMware Cloud Foundation VMware ESXi(7.0 U3 before ESXi70U3c-19193900, 7.0 U2 before ESXi70U2e-19290878 and 7.0 U1 before ESXi70U1e-19324898) and VMware Cloud Foundation 4.x before 4.4
References
CVSS V3.1
Score:
7.8
Severity:
HIGH
Confidentiality:
High
Integrity:
High
Availability:
High
Attack Vector:
Local
Attack Complexity:
Low
Privileges Required:
Low
User Interaction:
None
Scope:
Unchanged
Timeline
Vulnerability published
Vulnerability Reserved