CVE-2021-22040 Use after free in VMware ESXi , Workstation, Fusion and VMware Cloud Foundation
A local administrator in a guest VM can exploit a use-after-free flaw to execute code on the host system, requiring immediate patching.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2021-22040?
CVE-2021-22040 is a medium-severity use after free vulnerability in Vmware Cloud Foundation, published on 16 Feb 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain a use-after-free vulnerability in the XHCI USB controller. A malicious actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine may exploit this issue to execute code as the virtual machine's VMX process running on the host.
Weakness: CWE-416
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-22040?
It affects 5 products.
Products include Vmware Cloud Foundation, Vmware Esxi, Vmware Fusion, Vmware Workstation Player, Vmware Workstation Pro.
How do I fix CVE-2021-22040?
No fix has been published for CVE-2021-22040 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.
Is CVE-2021-22040 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-22040 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Vmware Cloud Foundation
- CVE-2024-38812 VMware vCenter Server Heap-Based Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2024-37079 Broadcom VMware vCenter Server Out-of-bounds Write
- CVE-2022-22954 VMware Workspace ONE Access and Identity Manager Server-Side Template Injection
- CVE-2021-22005 VMware vCenter Server File Upload
- CVE-2021-21985 VMware vCenter Server Improper Input Validation
Sources
Also known as GHSA-4pf4-vf9p-vxx6.