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A privilege escalation vulnerability in VMware Center Server was privately reported to VMware. Workarounds are available to remediate this vulnerability in the affected VMware products.
Description
The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the IWA (Integrated Windows Authentication) authentication mechanism. VMware has evaluated the severity of this issue to be in the Important severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 7.1.
Known Attack Vectors
A malicious actor with non-administrative access to vCenter Server may exploit this issue to elevate privileges to a higher privileged group.
Resolution
None.
Workarounds
Workaround for CVE-2021-22048 is to switch to AD over LDAPS authentication OR Identity Provider Federation for AD FS (vSphere 7.0 only) from Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) as documented in the KB listed in the 'Workarounds' column of the 'Response Matrix' below.
Additional Documentation
None.
Notes
None.
Acknowledgements
VMware would like to thank Yaron Zinar and Sagi Sheinfeld of Crowdstrike for reporting this issue to us.
Response Matrix
Product | Version | Running On | CVE Identifier | CVSSv3 | Severity | Fixed Version | Workarounds | Additional Documentation |
vCenter Server
|
7.0
|
Any
|
CVE-2021-22048
|
important
|
Patch pending
|
None
|
||
vCenter Server
|
6.7
|
Any
|
CVE-2021-22048
|
important
|
Patch Pending
|
None
|
||
vCenter Server
|
6.5
|
Any
|
CVE-2021-22048
|
important
|
Patch Pending
|
None
|
Impacted Product Suites that Deploy Response Matrix Components:
Product | Version | Running On | CVE Identifier | CVSSv3 | Severity | Fixed Version | Workarounds | Additional Documentation |
Cloud Foundation (vCenter Server)
|
4.x
|
Any
|
CVE-2021-22048
|
important
|
Patch pending
|
None
|
||
Cloud Foundation (vCenter Server)
|
3.x
|
Any
|
CVE-2021-22048
|
important
|
Patch Pending
|
None
|
KB86292
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/86292
Mitre CVE Dictionary Links:
https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2021-22048
FIRST CVSSv3 Calculator:
CVE-2021-22048: https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.1#CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
2021-11-10 VMSA-2021-0025
Initial security advisory.
2021-11-15 VMSA-2021-0025.1
Added vCenter Server 6.5 in the Response Matrix.
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