# CVE-2023-34060: Auth bypass in VMware Cloud Director Appliance (VCD Appliance)

> Attackers can bypass SSH and management console login restrictions on upgraded VMware Cloud Director Appliances due to an underlying sssd vulnerability.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w4pv-p6xf-qc53

## What is CVE-2023-34060?

CVE-2023-34060 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in VMware Cloud Director Appliance (VCD Appliance), published on 14 Nov 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

VMware Cloud Director Appliance contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in case VMware Cloud Director Appliance was upgraded to 10.5 from
an older version. On an upgraded version of VMware Cloud Director Appliance 10.5, a malicious actor with network access to the appliance can bypass login
restrictions when authenticating on port 22 (ssh) or port 5480 (appliance management console) . This bypass is not present on port 443 (VCD provider
and tenant login). On a new installation of VMware Cloud Director Appliance 10.5, the bypass is not present. VMware Cloud Director Appliance is impacted since it uses an affected version of sssd from the underlying Photon OS. The sssd issue is no longer present in versions of Photon OS that ship with sssd-2.8.1-11 or higher (Photon OS 3) or sssd-2.8.2-9 or higher (Photon OS 4 and 5).

Weakness: CWE-306 (Missing Authentication for Critical Functionality)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-34060?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Vmware Cloud Director.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-34060?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-34060 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-34060 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-34060 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in VMware Cloud Director Appliance (VCD Appliance)

- [CVE-2024-22277](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-22277/): Cross-site scripting in VMware Cloud Director Availability (medium 6.4)
- [CVE-2024-22256](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-22256/): Information disclosure in VMware Cloud Director (medium 4.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-34060 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-34060 is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in VMware Cloud Director Appliance (VCD Appliance), published on 14 Nov 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-34060 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: VMware Cloud Director Appliance (VCD Appliance). 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-2023-34060/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-34060/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-34060
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-34060
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-34060

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-34060/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.