High severity7.8CISA KEVNVD Advisory· Published Sep 29, 2025· Updated Jun 17, 2026

CVE-2025-41244

Description

VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious local actor with non-administrative privileges having access to a VM with VMware Tools installed and managed by Aria Operations with SDMP enabled may exploit this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root on the same VM.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

Affected products

VMware/Aria Operations3 versions
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:aria_operations:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 2 more
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:aria_operations:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: >=8.0,<8.18.5
- (no CPE)
- (no CPE)range: 8.18.x
VMware/Cloud Foundation2 versions
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:cloud_foundation:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 1 more
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:cloud_foundation:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: >=4.0,<=5.2.2
- (no CPE)range: 5.x
VMware/Cloud Foundation Operations
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:cloud_foundation_operations:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
VMware/Open VM Tools2 versions
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:open_vm_tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 1 more
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:open_vm_tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: >=11.2.0,<12.5.4
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:open_vm_tools:13.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
VMware/Telco Cloud Infrastructure
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:telco_cloud_infrastructure:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Range: >=2.2,<=3.0
VMware/Telco Cloud Platform2 versions
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:telco_cloud_platform:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 1 more
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:telco_cloud_platform:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: >=4.0,<5.0.1
- (no CPE)range: 5.x
VMware/Tools2 versions
cpe:2.3:a:vmware:tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 1 more
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: >=12.5.0,<12.5.4
- (no CPE)
Debian/linux
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
osv-coords40 versions
pkg:rpm/almalinux/open-vm-tools pkg:rpm/almalinux/open-vm-tools-desktop pkg:rpm/almalinux/open-vm-tools-salt-minion pkg:rpm/almalinux/open-vm-tools-sdmp pkg:rpm/almalinux/open-vm-tools-test pkg:rpm/opensuse/open-vm-tools&distro=openSUSE%20Leap%2015.6 pkg:rpm/opensuse/open-vm-tools&distro=openSUSE%20Leap%2016.0 pkg:rpm/opensuse/open-vm-tools&distro=openSUSE%20Tumbleweed pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Enterprise%20Storage%207.1 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20High%20Performance%20Computing%2015%20SP3-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20High%20Performance%20Computing%2015%20SP4-ESPOS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20High%20Performance%20Computing%2015%20SP4-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20High%20Performance%20Computing%2015%20SP5-ESPOS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20High%20Performance%20Computing%2015%20SP5-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Micro%205.1 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Micro%205.2 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Micro%205.3 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Micro%205.4 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Micro%205.5 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Module%20for%20Basesystem%2015%20SP6 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Module%20for%20Basesystem%2015%20SP7 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Module%20for%20Containers%2015%20SP6 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Module%20for%20Containers%2015%20SP7 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Module%20for%20Desktop%20Applications%2015%20SP6 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Module%20for%20Desktop%20Applications%2015%20SP7 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%2012%20SP5-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%2015%20SP3-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%2015%20SP4-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%2015%20SP5-LTSS pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%2016.0 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%20LTSS%20Extended%20Security%2012%20SP5 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%20for%20SAP%20Applications%2015%20SP3 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%20for%20SAP%20Applications%2015%20SP4 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%20for%20SAP%20Applications%2015%20SP5 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server%20for%20SAP%20applications%2016.0 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Micro%206.0 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Micro%206.1 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Linux%20Micro%206.2 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Manager%20Proxy%20LTS%204.3 pkg:rpm/suse/open-vm-tools&distro=SUSE%20Manager%20Server%20LTS%204.3
< 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2+ 39 more
- (no CPE)range: < 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
- (no CPE)range: < 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
- (no CPE)range: < 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
- (no CPE)range: < 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
- (no CPE)range: < 12.5.0-1.el9_6.2
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.5-160000.1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.5-1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150600.3.18.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-4.89.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.5-160000.1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-4.89.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.5-160000.1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.5-1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.10-slfo.1.1_1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.5-160000.1.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
- (no CPE)range: < 13.0.0-150300.64.1
VMware/Vcenter Operationscpe-rescue
Range: 9.0.x
VMware/VMware Infrastructure Clientcpe-rescue
Range: 3.x
VMware/VMware Tools for macOScpe-rescue
Range: 13.x.x.x

Patches

Vulnerability mechanics

References

blog.nviso.eu/2025/09/29/you-name-it-vmware-elevates-it-cve-2025-41244/nvdExploitThird Party Advisory
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/09/29/10nvdMailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00000.htmlnvdMailing ListThird Party Advisory
support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36149nvdVendor Advisory
support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/support-content-view/-/support-content/Security%20Advisories/VMSA-2025-0015--VMware-Aria-Operations-and-VMware-Tools-updates-address-multiple-vulnerabilities--CVE-2025-41244-CVE-2025-41245--CVE-2025-41246-/36149nvdPermissions Required
www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalognvdUS Government Resource

News mentions

Inside the customer environment: Where threat actors, vulnerabilities, and exposed assets intersect
Tenable Blog · May 27, 2026

cvss	0.507
epss	0.006
exploit	0.000
kev	0.120
patch	-0.070
ransomware	0.000