Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2019-5544

ESXi and Horizon DaaS

VMware / ESXi and Horizon DaaS · ESXi 6.7 prior to patch release ESXi670-201912001, ESXi 6.5 prior to patch release ESXi650-201912001, ESXi 6.0 prior to patch release ESXi600-201912001 and Horizon DaaS 8.x prior to BZ-2467224-Disable_SLPD_service_permanently_801_Hotfix.

Watch CVE-2019-5544 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
97.3%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2019-5544 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS. OpenSLP as used in ESXi and the Horizon DaaS appliances has a heap overwrite issue. VMware has evaluated the severity of this...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

VMware / ESXi and Horizon DaaS esxi 6.7 prior to patch release esxi670-201912001, esxi 6.5 prior to patch release esxi650-201912001, esxi 6.0 prior to patch release esxi600-201912001 and horizon daas 8.x prior to bz-2467224-disable_slpd_service_permanently_801_hotfix..

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

OpenSLP as used in ESXi and the Horizon DaaS appliances has a heap overwrite issue

OpenSLP as used in ESXi and the Horizon DaaS appliances has a heap overwrite issue. VMware has evaluated the severity of this issue to be in the Critical severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 9.8.

n/a Affected
ESXi and Horizon DaaS
ESXi 6.7 prior to patch release ESXi670-201912001, ESXi 6.5 prior to patch release ESXi650-201912001, ESXi 6.0 prior to patch release ESXi600-201912001 and Horizon DaaS 8.x prior to BZ-2467224-Disable_SLPD_service_permanently_801_Hotfix.
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
06 Dec 2019
Exploitation Reported
03 Nov 2021
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa nuclei_scanner malware ransomware

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Used in malware

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

Malware families have been linked to exploitation of this CVE.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 01 Dec 2020

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2021-11-03 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/network/cves/2019/CVE-2019-5544.yaml 01 Jun 2026

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.8 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

97.3%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Out-of-bounds Write CWE-787

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 9.8 Critical

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

CVSS v2.0 7.5 High

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

VMware ESXi SLP - Heap Overflow DoS

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 14:21 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. 15:34 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  3. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  4. 00:00 UTC

    First public exploitation report

    Exploit observed in malware

  5. 15:54 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  6. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2019-5544

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2019-5544",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.97258,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}