CVE-2020-3952Under certain conditions, vmdir that ships with VMware vCenter Server, as part of an embedded or external Platform Services Controller…
- 9.8CriticalCVSS base score
- 90.4%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.2% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 3 Nov 2021
- 4Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Under certain conditions, vmdir that ships with VMware vCenter Server, as part of an embedded or external Platform Services Controller (PSC), does not correctly implement access controls.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as VMware vCenter Server Information Disclosure Vulnerability.
- Added
- 3 Nov 2021
- Fix due (US federal)
- 3 May 2022
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 3 Nov 2021.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list 2 Metasploit modules, a Nuclei template and an Exploit-DB entry for it. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Show the exploits4
Metasploit modules2 modules
- VMware vCenter Server vmdir Authentication Bypass (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/admin/ldap/vmware_vcenter_vmdir_auth_bypassRank normaldisclosed 9 Apr 2020
- VMware vCenter Server vmdir Information Disclosure (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/gather/vmware_vcenter_vmdir_ldapRank normaldisclosed 9 Apr 2020
Nuclei templates1 template
- VMware vCenter Server LDAP Broken Access Control (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-3952.yamlSeverity critical
Exploit-DB1 entry
- VMware vCenter Server 6.7 - Authentication Bypass (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 48535webapps, multiplepublished 1 Jun 2020Not verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By vmware
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Published
- 19 months later
· 19 months later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CISA-ADPADP (enrichment) | 3.1 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 90.4% · top 0.2% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.8.
Affected products
VMware vCenter Server
- affected vCenter Server 6.7 (embedded or external PSC) prior to 6.7u3f is affected by CVE-2020-3952 if it was upgraded from a previous release line such as 6.0 or 6.5. Clean installations of vCenter Server 6.7 (embedded or external PSC) are not affected.
References
References3
- https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0006 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157896/VMware-vCenter-Server-6.7-Authentication-Bypass.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-3952 (opens in a new tab)government-resource
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-25217 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-3952)Record last updated .