CriticalCVE-2022-22960

    VMware Multiple Products Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (CVE-2022-22960)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation contain a privilege escalation vulnerability due to improper permissions in support scripts. A malicious actor with local access can escalate privileges to 'root'.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update cloud_foundation to version 5.0, vrealize_suite_lifecycle_manager to version 9.0. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation eq Access 21.08.0.1, 21.08.0.0, 20.10.0.1, 20.10.0.0. Identity Manager 3.3.6, 3.3.5, 3.3.4, 3.3.3. vRealize Automation 7.6...Access 21.08.0.1, 21.08.0.0, 20.10.0.1, 20.10.0.0. Identity Manager 3.3.6, 3.3.5, 3.3.4, 3.3.3. vRealize Automation 7.6.

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    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    35.5 %

    EPSS score

    Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 98.5

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    217.21 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

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    35.5 %
    Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    98.5
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 29 January 2025
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-732

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    On paper this is a local, low-privilege escalation. In practice, attackers chained it with the unauthenticated RCE CVE-2022-22954 almost immediately after disclosure, gaining root on the identity provider straight from the internet. Treat it as a critical remote issue with very high exploitation likelihood. Typical targets are organisations that publish Workspace ONE Access or vIDM as an external SSO portal, plus VCF/vRSLCM data centres. CISA has no known ransomware use on record, but root on the IdP enables full identity takeover and lateral movement. Handle internet-facing instances at top urgency and internal-only instances at high priority within the emergency patch cycle, and include a compromise assessment in both cases.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory affected appliances: VMware Workspace ONE Access (20.10.0.0, 20.10.0.1, 21.08.0.0, 21.08.0.1), VMware Identity Manager (3.3.3–3.3.6), vRealize Automation 7.6, and instances deployed via VMware Cloud Foundation (3.x before 5.0) or vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager (8.x before 9.0). Embedded vIDM in VCF/vRSLCM stacks is easy to miss.
      • Apply the vendor fix: A patch is available from the vendor — look up exact versions in the VMware Security Advisory for CVE-2022-22960. Per the context, the fix ships in VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager 9.0. For Access, Identity Manager and vRA 7.6, take the patch and hotfix details directly from the advisory.
      • Remediate the paired RCE at the same time: In the wild, this bug is chained with CVE-2022-22954, an unauthenticated server-side template injection RCE in the same products. CVE-2022-22954 provides code execution as the horizon user, and CVE-2022-22960 escalates it to root. Patch both together.
      • Restrict internet-facing instances now: If you can't patch within hours, block or source-restrict access to the web interface (TCP 443) at the perimeter firewall or reverse proxy.
      • Assume compromise and triage before patching: Snapshot or forensically image the appliance (logs, /usr/local/horizon/scripts/, webroot, /tmp) before you patch. Patching does not remove webshells or persistence that are already in place.
      • Rotate secrets if compromise is suspected: Change local root and SSH credentials, service accounts and AD bind accounts. Reissue the IdP's SAML/OAuth signing keys and certificates. A rooted IdP can forge logins to every federated application.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: Place Workspace ONE Access/vIDM in a dedicated management or DMZ zone. Restrict egress to required destinations (AD/LDAP, DNS, NTP, connectors) and deny everything else. This breaks reverse shells, tool staging and C2 after privilege escalation.
      • WAF/IPS against the entry chain: Because CVE-2022-22960 needs local access, focus on the upstream CVE-2022-22954 vector. Block requests to /catalog-portal/ui/oauth/verify and /catalog-portal/ui that carry template expressions (freemarker, ${, ?new(), Execute) in parameters such as deviceUdid or error. Enable your vendor's Suricata, Snort or NGFW signatures for CVE-2022-22954.
      • Endpoint hardening: The root cause is improper permissions on support scripts that horizon can run as root via sudo. Until you patch, review /etc/sudoers and /etc/sudoers.d/ for horizon entries. Verify ownership and permissions of /usr/local/horizon/scripts/*.hzn: they must not be writable by horizon or open to symlink abuse. Follow vendor guidance for any change so the appliance stays supportable.
      • IAM / least privilege: Disable SSH to the appliance or limit it to a jump-host subnet. Minimise local accounts. Expose admin consoles only through privileged access workstations with MFA.
      • Downstream monitoring: Review SAML relying parties and federated apps for anomalous sessions. A compromised IdP is a launchpad into cloud and SaaS estates.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • auditd / sudo logs: Watch for sudo invocations by horizon targeting scripts under /usr/local/horizon/scripts/ (e.g. publishCaCert.hzn, gatherConfig.hzn) outside maintenance windows. Suggested watch: -w /usr/local/horizon/scripts/ -p wa -k vidm_scripts. Any write by a non-root user is high-fidelity.
      • Process ancestry (EDR/auditd execve): Look for java (Tomcat, user horizon) → sh/bash → sudo → a script or shell with euid=0. Sigma shape: ParentImage|endswith: '/java' AND Image|endswith: ['/bash','/sh','/sudo'] AND User: 'horizon'. Also flag new SUID binaries or root shells in /tmp or /var/tmp.
      • File integrity: Alert on new or modified .jsp files under the appliance's Tomcat webapps, which indicate webshell persistence. Also alert on changes to /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/sudoers, root's authorized_keys, and crontabs.
      • Web/proxy logs (entry chain): Look for requests to /catalog-portal/ui/oauth/verify containing freemarker, ${ or URL-encoded %24%7B. Example SPL: index=proxy uri_path="/catalog-portal/ui*" (uri_query="*freemarker*" OR uri_query="*%24%7B*").
      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata): Flag outbound connections from the vIDM appliance to unknown external hosts. Pay particular attention to curl/wget user agents in http.log and to long-lived sessions on unusual ports.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation contain a privilege escalation vulnerability due to improper permissions in support scripts. A malicious actor with local access can escalate privileges to 'root'.

    Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    —VMware Workspace ONE Access, Identity Manager and vRealize Automation
    • Access 21.08.0.1, 21.08.0.0, 20.10.0.1, 20.10.0.0. Identity Manager 3.3.6, 3.3.5, 3.3.4, 3.3.3. vRealize Automation 7.6.
    • —
    vmwarecloud_foundation
    • 3.0 – < 5.0
    • 5.0
    vmwareidentity_manager
    • 3.3.5
    • 3.3.3
    • 3.3.4
    • 3.3.6
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —
    vmwarevrealize_automation
    • 7.6
    • —
    vmwarevrealize_suite_lifecycle_manager
    • 8.0 – < 9.0
    • 9.0
    vmwareworkspace_one_access
    • 21.08.0.0
    • 21.08.0.1
    • 20.10.0.0
    • 20.10.0.1
    • —
    • —
    • —
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-732Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource

      Class

      The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-732

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited
    Packet StormMware Workspace ONE Remote Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormVMware Workspace ONE Remote Code Execution (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—
    Packet StormVMware Workspace ONE Access Privilege Escalation (opens in a new tab)packetstormsecurity.comPoC (publicly reported)reported, not verified—

    References & sources

    • vmware.comsecurity/advisories/VMSA-2022-0011.htmlPatch, Vendor advisory
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/171918/Mware-Workspace-ONE-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/171918/VMware-Workspace-ONE-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • packetstormsecurity.comfiles/171935/VMware-Workspace-ONE-Access-Privilege-Escalation.h…Exploit, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-22960government-resource, US government resource
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