CVE-2023-20867 | VMware Tools Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Exp

A fully compromised ESXi host can force VMware Tools to fail to authenticate host-to-guest operations, impacting the confidentiality and integrity of the guest virtual machine.

Published: 2023-06-13 Last update: 2025-10-28 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-20867 is rated Active Exploitation (70/100): CVSS Low severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.19%). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2023-06-23) affecting VMware / Tools. an authentication bypass (CWE-287) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2023-20867

Name: VMware Tools Authentication Bypass Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2023-06-23

Action due: 2023-07-14

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20867

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-05 2.95% 2.19% -0.76%
2 2026-04-16 2.72% 2.95% +0.23%
3 2026-03-05 — 2.72% —

Full EPSS history (40 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20867

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.9 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 0.8 2.7 [email protected]
3.9 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 0.8 2.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20867

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-20867

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-20867: 1 source package rows (open-vm-tools); 6 state rows across 6 repos (3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 6, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-20867
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-20867 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (open-vm-tools), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2023-20867
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-20867
suse medium CVE-2023-20867 severity moderate: SUSE including 80 source package names (2.0.2-4.2.20:libvmtools0-12.2.0-150300.29.1, 2.0.2-4.2.20:open-vm-tools-12.2.0-150300.29.1, …), 212 product×package rows across 57 product lines (Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.2, Container suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.3, … (57 product lines)): Fixed 203, Known Not Affected 9. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-20867/
ubuntu low CVE-2023-20867 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (open-vm-tools), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, ignored 1, needs-triage 1, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-20867

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20867

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vmware tools >= 10.3.0, < 12.2.5 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 12.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:12.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 38 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:38:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 39 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:39:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-20867

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/11 Mailing List Patch
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/16/2 Mailing List Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/08/msg00020.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/NVKQ6Y2JFJRWPFOZUOTFO3H27BK5GGOG/ Mailing List Release Notes
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/TJNJMD67QIT6LXLKWSHFM47DCLRSMT6W/ Mailing List Release Notes
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/ZJM6HDRQYS74JA7YNKQBFH2XSZ52HEWH/ Mailing List Release Notes
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230725-0001/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5493 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0013.html Patch Vendor Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-20867 US Government Resource
cvelogic Threat Intelligence