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CVE-2023-20867

Exploitation: active CVSS 3.9 LOW

CVSS base score: 3.9 (Low) vendor CNA · v3.1

Score assigned by the vendor's own CVE Numbering Authority (CNA); CISA's Vulnrichment program adds a score only when the CNA omits one. Vulnrichment source record →

VMware Tools Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Vendor: VMware   Product: Tools

Description

VMware Tools contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the vgauth module. 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. An attacker must have root access over ESXi to exploit this vulnerability.

Research & News Coverage

No mentions found in monitored research blogs or news feeds.

Lifecycle Timeline

Each milestone comes from a different source, so gaps between them are gaps in what those sources publish, not evidence that nothing happened. EPSS history for this CVE holds 227 points from 2023-06-17, tracked daily from 2026-09-09; earlier points are weekly, which dates a spike to within a week. Peak probability 13.6% on 2026-06-20.

Published Applicability

Red Hat CSAF/VEX 0 affected · 146 fixed · 0 not affected
CVE List v5 (CNA container) 0 affected · 0 fixed · 1 not affected

Check whether a specific version is affected →

What each source publishes about which product versions carry this vulnerability, kept as written rather than merged. Absence here means no source has published applicability data, not that nothing is affected.

Detection & Exploitation

Exploit / Pen Test
none published
Network IDS/IPS
none published
Host / SIEM
none published

Coverage across public collections only: Nuclei and OpenVAS NVT (scan); Snort and Suricata ET Open (network); Sigma and YARA (host/SIEM); Metasploit, Exploit-DB, public GitHub repositories and NVD exploit references (exploit). Absence here means nothing public was found, not that detection is impossible.
GitHub PoC repositories are collected automatically by PoC-in-GitHub (CC0) and filtered to repositories that are still online, contain code, and are starred or at least two weeks old. They are still not vetted: some are fakes and some are malware. Treat them as evidence that code was published, not as code to run.
NVD exploit references are links NVD's analysts tag as exploits; they confirm an exploit was referenced but carry no date. This product uses data from the NVD but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
OpenVAS coverage derives from the Greenbone Community Feed, made available under the Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0; its individual Vulnerability Tests are licensed GNU GPL v2.

No exploit-tool sightings recorded for this CVE.

Metasploit is dated by the first commit of the module file, Exploit-DB by its publication date, and GitHub repositories by their creation date. GitHub PoC repositories are filtered (still online, contain code, starred or at least two weeks old) but not vetted: some are fakes and some are malware, so they show that code was published, not that it works or is safe to run. Evidence tiers are explained on the About page.

Distribution Status

Debian · open-vm-tools bookworm 2:12.2.0-1+deb12u1 trixie 2:12.2.5-1 forky 2:12.2.5-1 sid 2:12.2.5-1 scope: local

Where the distribution has shipped a fix, and in which version. Green means the release has resolved it, amber that it is still open. Data from the Debian Security Tracker, used under Debian's MIT / GPLv2+ terms. Debian is upstream of several other distributions, so a fix here often precedes theirs.

CISA Assessment (Vulnrichment / SSVC)

active
no
partial
—
3.9 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
CWE-287 — Improper Authentication
2025-02-04

Federal Remediation Window (BOD 26-04)

Yes — added 2023-06-23
no
partial control
If the asset isRemediate withinTable 1 row
Publicly exposed 14 days 4 of 16
Not publicly exposed 14 days 12 of 16

BOD 26-04 replaced the single KEV deadline of BOD 22-01 with four inputs: whether the asset is publicly exposed, KEV status, whether exploitation is automatable, and technical impact. Exposure belongs to each agency's asset, not to the CVE, so both outcomes are shown. Automatable and technical impact come from the CISA assessment above. Days are calendar days; for KEV entries the clock starts on the date it was added. Agencies make the final exposure call asset by asset, and may set shorter timelines.

D3FEND Countermeasures

Defensive techniques inferred by MITRE D3FEND from the underlying weakness (CWE-287) — general hardening and detection guidance for this weakness class, not a vendor patch for this specific CVE.

External References