VMware Aria Ops/Tools LPE via SDMP (VMware vSphere)
CVE-2025-41244 Published on September 29, 2025
VMSA-2025-0015: VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools updates address multiple vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-41244,CVE-2025-41245, CVE-2025-41246)
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.
Known Exploited Vulnerability
This Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools Privilege Defined with Unsafe Actions Vulnerability is part of CISA's list of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities. Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools contain a privilege defined with unsafe actions 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.
The following remediation steps are recommended / required by November 20, 2025: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2025-41244 is exploitable with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. This vulnerability is known to be actively exploited by threat actors. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.
Weakness Type
Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions
A particular privilege, role, capability, or right can be used to perform unsafe actions that were not intended, even when it is assigned to the correct entity.
Products Associated with CVE-2025-41244
You can be notified by email with stack.watch whenever vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-41244 are published in these products:
Affected Versions
VMware VCF operations:- Version 9.0.x and below 9.0.1.0 is affected.
- Version 13.x.x.x and below 13.0.5.0 is affected.
- Version 12.5.x and below 12.5.4 is affected.
- Version 8.18.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
- Version 5.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
- Version 4.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
- Version 5.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
- Version 4.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
- Version 3.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
- Version 2.x and below 8.18.5 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.