CriticalCVE-2024-37079

    Broadcom VMware vCenter Server Out-of-bounds Write Vulnerability (CVE-2024-37079)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: SingCERT, CVE.org

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    What is affected, what to do

    vCenter Server contains a heap-overflow vulnerability in the implementation of the DCERPC protocol. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted network packet potentially leading to remote code execution.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update cloud_foundation to version 5.2. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • VMware vCenter Server gte 8.0..*
    • VMware vCenter Server gte 7.0..*
    • VMware Cloud Foundation eq 5.x..5.x
    • VMware Cloud Foundation eq 4.x..4.x

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    9.8

    Priority

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

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    9.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity Critical on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: SingCERT, CVE.org

    22.4 %

    EPSS score

    Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 97.7

    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
    230.76 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
    9.8 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
    9.8
    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“.

    Read in glossary
    22.4 %
    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
    97.7
    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 · automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 23 January 2026
    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-787

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    vCenter is the control plane of the virtualisation estate — unauthenticated, network-reachable code execution effectively hands an attacker every managed host, VM and dataset, including virtualised domain controllers and backup infrastructure. The flaw needs no credentials or user interaction and carries a very high exploitation likelihood; vCenter is also a favoured foothold for long-term stealthy access because appliances rarely run EDR. CISA has not flagged ransomware use, but the platform remains a classic lever for estate-wide encryption or sabotage. For KRITIS and NIS2-scoped organisations, treat any unpatched instance reachable from other segments as critical with immediate remediation; strictly isolated instances should still be patched with high priority in the next short-notice maintenance window.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory every vCenter instance (7.0, 8.0) and VMware Cloud Foundation deployment (4.x, 5.x) via CMDB and network scanning — including forgotten lab, DR and test vCenters. Record build numbers via VAMI (https://<vcenter>:5480) or vpxd -v.
      • Apply the vendor patch: Broadcom advisory VMSA-2024-0012 lists vCenter Server 8.0 U2d (or 8.0 U1e for the U1 branch) and 7.0 U3r as fixed releases. For VMware Cloud Foundation, the context lists 5.2 as fixed; for 4.x and earlier 5.x builds, a patch is available from the vendor — check the vendor advisory for the exact version. Take a snapshot or file-based backup of the appliance first. Broadcom states there is no in-product workaround — updating is the only complete fix.
      • Restrict reachability now: vCenter must not be reachable from the internet or from client/server networks with no management role. Firewall all vCenter ports down to dedicated admin jump hosts or the management VLAN — notably 443/tcp, 5480/tcp and DCERPC endpoints (e.g. 135/tcp or dynamic RPC ports where exposed).
      • Compromise assessment for previously unpatched, exposed instances: check for crash artefacts (core dumps), unknown processes and new local accounts (see detection rules). If suspicious, isolate, take a forensic image, and avoid a casual reboot.
      • Rotate credentials if compromise is suspected: administrator@vsphere.local, appliance root, backup/monitoring service accounts and ESXi credentials stored in vCenter; reissue the STS signing certificate.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Network segmentation: run vCenter only inside an isolated management segment with allowlisted east-west flows (jump hosts, ESXi hosts, backup servers, identity source). Block and log inbound DCERPC from all other zones.
      • Egress control on the appliance: vCenter typically needs only defined destinations (NTP, DNS, AD/LDAP, Broadcom update repository or local mirror). Block everything else — especially arbitrary internet destinations — to stop reverse shells and exfiltration after code execution.
      • IPS/NDR: enable signatures for malformed or oversized DCERPC fragments (fragmented bind/request PDUs with inconsistent length fields) towards vCenter IPs; check vendor rule sets (Suricata/Snort ET, Palo Alto, Fortinet) for CVE-2024-37079 coverage and run them in blocking mode.
      • Appliance hardening: disable SSH and the BASH shell on the appliance unless operationally required; enable remote syslog to the SIEM so logs survive tampering.
      • IAM/least privilege: admin access only via named AD accounts with MFA (identity federation) and a PAM solution; restrict administrator@vsphere.local to break-glass use and alert on every login.

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Network telemetry (Zeek/Suricata): DCERPC sessions to vCenter from non-approved source networks. Zeek example: dce_rpc.log | where id.resp_h in (vcenter_ips) and id.orig_h !in (mgmt_allowlist); plus Suricata dcerpc anomaly alerts (fragment reassembly errors) against those targets.
      • Crash artefacts on the appliance: failed heap-overflow attempts often crash services. Watch for new files under /storage/core or /var/core and repeated service restarts in /var/log/vmware/vmon/ as an early warning.
      • Process ancestry (auditd/EDR where available on the appliance): VMware service processes (e.g. vmdird, vpxd, rhttpproxy, lwsmd) spawning /bin/bash, sh, python, curl, wget, nc. Sigma shape: ParentImage|contains: ['vmdird','vpxd','lwsmd'] AND Image|endswith: ['/bash','/sh','/curl','/wget','/nc'].
      • Persistence and account changes: new entries in /etc/passwd, new keys in /root/.ssh/authorized_keys, altered cron jobs or systemd units; in vCenter (vpxd) events, new SSO users, role assignments or identity-source changes. SPL example: index=vcenter ("UserCreated" OR "RoleAdded" OR "PermissionAdded") | stats count by user, src.
      • Post-exploitation abuse: unexpected VM creation, cloning or power-off, datastore downloads of domain controller .vmdk files, and SSH being enabled on ESXi hosts outside maintenance windows.

    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

    vCenter Server contains a heap-overflow vulnerability in the implementation of the DCERPC protocol. A malicious actor with network access to vCenter Server may trigger this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted network packet potentially leading to remote code execution.

    Source: CSA/SingCERT, 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 Cloud Foundation
    • 4.x
    • 5.x
    • —
    • —
    —VMware vCenter Server
    • ≥ 7.0
    • ≥ 8.0
    • —
    • —
    vmwarecloud_foundation
    • 4.0 – < 5.2
    • 5.2
    vmwarevcenter_server
    • 7.0
    • 8.0
    • —
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-787Out-of-bounds Write

      Base

      The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-787

    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

    References & sources

    • support.broadcom.comweb/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/Securit…Patch, Vendor advisory
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-37079government-resource, US government resource
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