CVE-2024-37085VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can gain…
- 6.8MediumCVSS base score
- 26.8%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 1.9% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 30 Jul 2024
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can gain full access to an ESXi host that was previously configured to use AD for user management https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/joining-vsphere-hosts-to-active-directory.html by re-creating the configured AD group ('ESXi Admins' by default) after it was deleted from AD.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass Vulnerability.
- Added
- 30 Jul 2024
- Fix due (US federal)
- 20 Aug 2024
- Used by ransomware
- Known
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 30 Jul 2024.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Timeline
ID reserved
By vmware
- 22 days later
· 22 days later
Published
- 35 days later
· 35 days later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited, also by ransomware
- 15 months later
· 15 months 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| vmwareCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | High7.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 26.8% · top 1.9% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.8.
Affected products
VMware ESXi
- affected 8.0 – < ESXi80U3-24022510
- affected 7.0
VMware Cloud Foundation
- affected 5.x
- affected 4.x
References
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-2024-36416 (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-2024-37085)Record last updated .