June 23, 2023 · Applied Cybernetics Group
CVE-2023-20867 — VMware Tools
VMware Tools Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
- Added to KEV
2023-06-23- Federal due date
2023-07-14- Vendor
- VMware
- Product
- Tools
- EPSS
- 96.0th percentile (score 0.136, as of
2026-07-13) - NVD CVSS v3.1
- —
- Ransomware use
- Unknown
- ATT&CK
- T1059 , T1078 , T1105 · signal rollup
- Upstream
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20867
CISA short description
VMware Tools contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the vgauth module. A fully compromised ESXi host can force VMware Tools to fail to authenticate host-to-guest operations, impacting the confidentiality and integrity of the guest virtual machine. An attacker must have root access over ESXi to exploit this vulnerability.
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.