CVE-2019-5543

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-03-16 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-732

Description

For VMware Horizon Client for Windows (5.x and prior before 5.3.0), VMware Remote Console for Windows (10.x before 11.0.0), VMware Workstation for Windows (15.x before 15.5.2) the folder containing configuration files for the VMware USB arbitration service was found to be writable by all users. A local user on the system where the software is installed may exploit this issue to run commands as any user.

Affected products

VMware Horizon Server: from 5.0.0 before 5.3.0 — fixed in 5.3.0
VMware Remote Console: from 10.0.0 before 11.0.0 — fixed in 11.0.0
VMware Workstation: from 15.0.0 before 15.5.2 — fixed in 15.5.2
VMware Horizon Client for Windows: 5.x and prior before 5.3.0
VMware Remote Console for Windows: 10.x before 11.0.0
VMware Workstation for Windows: 15.x before 15.5.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: VMware Horizon Server 5.3.0; VMware Remote Console 11.0.0; VMware Workstation 15.5.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2019-5543 or the next vulnerability affects your stack