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CVE-2020-3950

VMware Fusion (11.x before 11.5.2), VMware Remote Console for Mac (11.x and prior before 11.0.1) and Horizon Client for Mac (5.x and prior before 5.4.0)…

High Known exploited
Severity
7.8 / 10
High · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
7.25%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 94.34% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
Yes
In CISA's catalog since Nov 3, 2021
Weakness
CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management
CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management
Fix
None yet
No fixed version published
Exploited in the wild. VMware Multiple Products Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (VMware Multiple Products). Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Due for U.S. federal agencies by May 3, 2022.

Description

VMware Fusion (11.x before 11.5.2), VMware Remote Console for Mac (11.x and prior before 11.0.1) and Horizon Client for Mac (5.x and prior before 5.4.0) contain a privilege escalation vulnerability due to improper use of setuid binaries. Successful exploitation of this issue may allow attackers with normal user privileges to escalate their privileges to root on the system where Fusion, VMRC or Horizon Client is installed.

How to fix

No fixed version has been published yet. Until one is, remove or replace the package, or turn off or isolate the affected feature. This page updates when a fix ships.

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 7.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Weakness

CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design, Operation: Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
  • Architecture and Design: Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Architecture and Design: Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design, Operation: Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
  • Architecture and Design: Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Architecture and Design: Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
  3. Remediation due for U.S. federal agencies
  4. Last updated by the source
  5. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-7hp6-4w63-5g45
LiteLLM: Privilege Escalation to Proxy Admin via Cross-Domain Reuse of the Salt Key
Critical Same weakness, CWE-269
GO-2026-6791
containerd CRI plugin: Checkpoint restore bypasses destination security context
High Same weakness, CWE-269
GHSA-pjr3-86v4-5p7w
Vikunja: Explicit lower-permission share on a sub-project is silently overridden by an inherited parent permission (broken access control / privilege-management regression in v2.6.0)
Medium Same weakness, CWE-269
GHSA-v3p6-34mc-hj7v
Vikunja: Scoped API token can mint unrestricted OAuth session credentials
High Same weakness, CWE-269
GHSA-4pvx-fwjj-8gpc
Ghost: Editors Could Promote Staff Users to Their Own Role
Medium Same weakness, CWE-269
CVE-2026-102490
Local privilege escalation in Zammad v1.5.0 to v7.2.2 installed via DEB or RPM package
High Known exploited Same weakness, CWE-269
GHSA-9qh4-3jw8-366w
Electron: <webview> can enable Node.js integration in Web Workers despite embedder restrictions
Critical Same weakness, CWE-269
GHSA-3w57-8xmc-8v26
AnyIO run_process/open_process ignores extra_groups and can retain parent supplementary groups
High Same weakness, CWE-269
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