Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2024-38813

Privilege escalation vulnerability

VMware vCenter Server · affected before 8.0_u3b

Watch CVE-2024-38813 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.5 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
17.4%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2024-38813 is Privilege escalation vulnerability affecting VMware vCenter Server, VMware Cloud Foundation. The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with network access to...

Is it exploited?

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

Who is affected?

VMware vCenter Server affected before 8.0_u3b.

What should we do?

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

Overview

Privilege escalation vulnerability

The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root by sending a specially crafted network packet.

broadcom Affected
vmware_center_server
Before 8.0_u3b Before 7.0_u3s
broadcom Affected
vmware_cloud_foundation
Before 6.0 Before 5.0
n/a Affected
VMware vCenter Server
Before 8.0 U3b Before 7.0 U3s
n/a Affected
VMware Cloud Foundation
5.x 4.x
Published
17 Sep 2024
Exploitation Reported
20 Nov 2024
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

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 20 Nov 2024

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

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 2024-11-20 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/207464 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.5 High

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

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

EPSS

17.4%

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

Weaknesses

Execution with Unnecessary Privileges CWE-250 Improper Check for Dropped Privileges CWE-273

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. 17:13 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 22:31 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-2024-38813

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2024-38813",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.17355,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}