November 3, 2021 · Applied Cybernetics Group
CVE-2021-21972 — VMware vCenter Server
known ransomware use
VMware vCenter Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
- Added to KEV
2021-11-03- Federal due date
2021-11-17- Vendor
- VMware
- Product
- vCenter Server
- EPSS
- 100.0th percentile (score 0.999, as of
2026-09-16) - NVD CVSS v3.1
- 9.8 (CRITICAL)
- Ransomware use
- Known
- ATT&CK
- T1059 , T1190 · signal rollup
- Upstream
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-21972
CISA short description
VMware vCenter Server vSphere Client contains a remote code execution vulnerability in a vCenter Server plugin which allows an attacker with network access to port 443 to execute commands with unrestricted privileges on the underlying operating system.
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
NVD description
The vSphere Client (HTML5) contains a remote code execution vulnerability in a vCenter Server plugin. A malicious actor with network access to port 443 may exploit this issue to execute commands with unrestricted privileges on the underlying operating system that hosts vCenter Server. This affects VMware vCenter Server (7.x before 7.0 U1c, 6.7 before 6.7 U3l and 6.5 before 6.5 U3n) and VMware Cloud Foundation (4.x before 4.2 and 3.x before 3.10.1.2).