Threats / VMware / CVE-2022-22960
CVE-2022-22960
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
VMware Multiple Products vulnerability
VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager, and vRealize Automation contain a privilege escalation vulnerability in support scripts due to improper permissions, allowing attackers to gain elevated system access.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An authenticated or local attacker can exploit improper permission controls in support scripts to escalate privileges and gain administrative access to affected VMware infrastructure components, potentially compromising identity and access management systems.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-04-154EPSS 0.37171 (verify live)5CVSS 7.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3Exploit Weaponized · public exploit · Metasploit module11
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
7 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-04-15).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.37171 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: VMware, Multiple Products. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-250 Excessive Privileges — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 2 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I gain initial access to a system running vulnerable VMware software through standard user credentials or local shell access.
Business
An attacker establishes a foothold in identity and access management infrastructure with limited privileges.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I identify and execute support scripts with improper permission restrictions to escalate my privileges to administrator or system level.
Business
The organization loses privilege boundary enforcement, enabling lateral movement and deeper system compromise.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I leverage elevated privileges to modify authentication policies, create backdoor accounts, or access sensitive identity data across the VMware environment.
Business
Attackers gain control over identity systems, potentially compromising all downstream applications and services relying on these platforms for authentication.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05