# CVE-2020-4005: Privilege escalation in VMware ESXi

> A malicious actor with VMX process privileges can escalate privileges on VMware ESXi hosts when chained with another vulnerability.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 20 Nov 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f537-rwg7-cjw7

## What is CVE-2020-4005?

CVE-2020-4005 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vmware Cloud Foundation, published on 20 Nov 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official 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)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-4005?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Vmware Cloud Foundation, Vmware Esxi.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-4005?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-4005 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-4005 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4005 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Vmware Cloud Foundation

- [CVE-2024-38812](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38812/): VMware vCenter Server Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-37079](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-37079/): Broadcom VMware vCenter Server Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-22954](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-22954/): VMware Workspace ONE Access and Identity Manager Server-Side Template Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-22005](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-22005/): VMware vCenter Server File Upload (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-21985](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-21985/): VMware vCenter Server Improper Input Validation (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-4005 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-4005 is a high-severity vulnerability in Vmware Cloud Foundation, published on 20 Nov 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4005 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Vmware Cloud Foundation. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4005/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4005/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-4005
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-4005
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-4005

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4005/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.