Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2024-37085

VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass

VMware ESXi · 7.0

Watch CVE-2024-37085 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 6.8 · Medium
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
26.8%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2024-37085 is a vulnerability affecting VMware ESXi, VMware Cloud Foundation. VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can...

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 7.0.

What should we do?

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

Overview

VMware ESXi Authentication Bypass

VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can gain full access to an ESXi host that was previously configured to use AD for user management https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/09/joining-vsphere-hosts-to-active-directory.html by re-creating the configured AD group ('ESXi Admins' by default) after it was deleted from AD.

vmware Affected
esxi
7.0 Before ESXi80U3-24022510
vmware Affected
cloud_foundation
Before 5.2 Before 5.0
n/a Affected
VMware ESXi
Before ESXi80U3-24022510 7.0
n/a Affected
VMware Cloud Foundation
5.x 4.x
Published
25 Jun 2024
Exploitation Reported
30 Jul 2024
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
Required

Tags

malware ransomware cisa nessus_scanner

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 30 Jul 2024

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Used in malware

CISA

Recorded 30 Jul 2024

Malware families have been linked to exploitation of this CVE.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

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

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Source Added
CISA First 2024-07-30 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
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/201123 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

6.8 Medium

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

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

EPSS

26.8%

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

Weaknesses

Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness CWE-305

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 09:26 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 00:00 UTC

    First public exploitation report

    Exploit observed in malware

  4. 14:16 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. 05:40 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-2024-37085

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2024-37085",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 6.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.2677,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}