CVE-2024-38813 — Vmware Center Server
HIGHCVE-2024-38813 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-250 vulnerability in broadcom vmware center server. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-11-20) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-11-20. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2024-12-11.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2024-38813.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2024-38813 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root by sending a specially crafted network packet.
Affected Products
vmware center serverbroadcomvmware cloud foundationbroadcomResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every broadcom vmware center server deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2024-38813 yet — track the broadcom vmware center server advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-38813 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.