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CVE-2020-3992: VMware ESXi OpenSLP Use-After-Free Vulnerability

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2021-11-03
• EPSS: 83.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2020-10-20 · updated 2026-08-12
• Weakness: CWE-416

Description

OpenSLP as used in VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi_7.0.1-0.0.16850804, 6.7 before ESXi670-202010401-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202010401-SG) has a use-after-free issue. A malicious actor residing in the management network who has access to port 427 on an ESXi machine may be able to trigger a use-after-free in the OpenSLP service resulting in remote code execution.

Affected products

• VMware Cloud Foundation: from 3.0 before 3.10.1.2; from 4.0 before 4.1.0.1 — fixed in 3.10.1.2, 4.1.0.1
• VMware ESXi: 6.5-2, 6.5-650-201701001, 6.5-650-201703001, 6.5-650-201703002, 6.5-650-201704001, 6.5-650-201707101 (+213); 6.5, 6.7, 7.0.0
• VMware ESXi: VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi_7.0.1-0.0.16850804, 6.7 before ESXi670-202010401-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202010401-SG)

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: VMware Cloud Foundation 3.10.1.2, 4.1.0.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0023.html
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1377/
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1385/
• https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0023.html
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1377/
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-20-1385/
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-3992

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