CVE-2023-20867: VMware Tools Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Severity: low (CVSS 3.9 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2023-06-23
EPSS: 13.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-06-13 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-287

Description

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.

Affected products

Debian Linux: 10.0, 11.0, 12.0
Fedoraproject Fedora: 37, 38, 39
VMware Tools: from 10.3.0 before 12.2.5 — fixed in 12.2.5

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: VMware Tools 12.2.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/11
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/2
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/08/msg00020.html
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NVKQ6Y2JFJRWPFOZUOTFO3H27BK5GGOG/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TJNJMD67QIT6LXLKWSHFM47DCLRSMT6W/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZJM6HDRQYS74JA7YNKQBFH2XSZ52HEWH/
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230725-0001/
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5493
https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0013.html
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/11
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/2
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/08/msg00020.html

Get alerted when CVE-2023-20867 or the next vulnerability affects your stack