CVE-2020-4005

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: 2020-11-20 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi70U1b-17168206, 6.7 before ESXi670-202011101-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202011301-SG) contains a privilege-escalation vulnerability that exists in the way certain system calls are being managed. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process only, may escalate their privileges on the affected system. Successful exploitation of this issue is only possible when chained with another vulnerability (e.g. CVE-2020-4004)

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: 6.5-650-201701001, 6.5-650-201703001, 6.5-650-201703002, 6.5-650-201704001, 6.5-650-201707101, 6.5-650-201707102 (+170); 6.5, 6.7, 7.0
VMware ESXi: 7.0 before ESXi70U1b-17168206, 6.7 before ESXi670-202011101-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202011301-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

Get alerted when CVE-2020-4005 or the next vulnerability affects your stack