VMware vCenter Server is advanced server management software that provides a centralized platform for controlling your VMware vSphere environments. It allows you to automate and deliver a virtual infrastructure across the hybrid cloud with confidence. With VMware Center, you gain centralized visibility, simplified and efficient management at scale, and extensibility across the hybrid cloud from a single console. Here are some related articles: Boot failure: How to fix EFI network timeout on VMware Workstation,. And how to solve VMware workstation .lck error. This article will show you how to resolve CVE-2021-22048: VMware vCenter Server updates address a privilege escalation vulnerability.

The following vulnerability was reported by Yaron Zinar and Sagi Sheinfeld of Crowdstrike to Vmware. The vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the IWA (Integrated Windows Authentication) authentication mechanism.

VMware has evaluated the severity of this issue to be in the Important severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 7.1. Please see Differences between vSphere and ESXi and vCenter.

Impacted Products

The following solutions below are affected.

VMware vCenter Server (vCenter Server)
VMware Cloud Foundation (Cloud Foundation)

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What Exploit Does this Vulnerability Present?

A malicious actor with non-administrative access to the vCenter Server may exploit this issue to elevate privileges to a higher privileged group.

Workarounds to resolve CVE-2021-22048: VMware vCenter Server updates address a privilege escalation vulnerability

There are currently no updates (patches) to mitigate this vulnerability. But here is the workaround for CVE-2021-22048: switch to AD over LDAPS authentication.

OR Identity Provider Federation for AD FS (vSphere 7.0 or later) from Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) as documented in the KB listed in the ‘Workarounds’ column of the ‘Response Matrix’ below.

Product	Version	Running On	CVE Identifier	CVSSv3	Severity	Fixed Version	Workarounds	Additional Documentation
vCenter Server	8.0	Any	CVE-2021-22048	7.1	Important	Patch Pending	KB86292	None
vCenter Server	7.0	Any	CVE-2021-22048	7.1	Important	Patch Pending [1]	KB86292	KB89027 [1]
vCenter Server	6.7	Any	CVE-2021-22048	7.1	Important	Patch Pending	KB86292	None
vCenter Server	6.5	Any	CVE-2021-22048	7.1	Important	Patch Pending	KB86292	None

Impacted Product Suites that Deploy Response Matrix Components:

Product	Version	Running On	CVE Identifier	CVSSv3	Severity	Fixed Version	Workarounds	Additional Documentation
Cloud Foundation (vCenter Server)	4.x	Any	CVE-2021-22048	7.1	Important	Patch pending	KB86292	None
Cloud Foundation (vCenter Server)	3.x	Any	CVE-2021-22048	7.1	Important	Patch Pending	KB86292	None

Note: VMware has determined that vCenter 7.0u3f updates previously mentioned in the response matrix do not remediate CVE-2021-22048. It may introduce a functional issue for customers using IWA. Please review KB89027 for more information.

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