High Privilege escalation

CVE-2026-22721 — VMware Aria Operations privilege escalation vulnerability

VMware Aria Operations contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. A malicious actor with privileges in vCenter to access Aria Operations may leverage this vulnerability to obtain administrative access in VMware Aria Operations. To remediate CVE-2026-22721, apply the patches listed in the 'Fixed Version' column of the 'Response Matrix' found in VMSA-2026-0001 https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/36947 .

Published Feb 25, 2026 · Updated Oct 13, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP · CNA: vmware

Low

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.

How the score was calculated

EPSS 0.7% (30-day exploitation probability)+8
Technical severity (high)+6

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation

Not confirmed

Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.

EPSS FIRST

0.73%

ahead of 53% of scored CVEs · Oct 15, 2026

Affects

Vmware

Aria Operations and 3 more

CVSS base

7.2

High · 3 source(s)

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation

None

none · proof-of-concept · active

Automatable

can an attacker script the kill-chain steps

Technical impact

Total

partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

Documented patch — support.broadcom.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Vmware Aria Operations, Vmware Cloud Foundation, Vmware Telco Cloud Infrastructure…).
Apply the fixed version or the patch documented under Remediation.
Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (privilege escalation), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

Vendor	Product	Versions	Status	Source
Vmware	Aria Operations	≥ 8.0 and < 8.18.6	Vulnerable	NIST National Vulnerability Database
Vmware	Aria Operations	≥ 8.18.0 and < 8.18.6	Vulnerable	CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Vmware	Cloud Foundation	≥ 4.0 and < 5.2.3≥ 9.0 and < 9.0.2.0	Vulnerable	NIST National Vulnerability Database
Vmware	Cloud Foundation	≥ 4.0 and < 5.2.3≥ 9.0 and < 9.0.2	Vulnerable	CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Vmware	Telco Cloud Infrastructure	≥ 2.2 and ≤ 3.0	Vulnerable	NIST National Vulnerability Database
Vmware	Telco Cloud Infrastructure	≥ 2.0 and < 5.2.3	Vulnerable	CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Vmware	Telco Cloud Platform	≥ 4.0 and ≤ 5.1	Vulnerable	NIST National Vulnerability Database
Vmware	Telco Cloud Platform	≥ 4.0 and < 5.2.3	Vulnerable	CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector

Network

Attack complexity

Low

Privileges required

High

User interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

Score	Version	Severity	Expl.	Impact	Scored by
7.2	CVSS 3.1	High	1.2	5.9	nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
6.2	CVSS 3.1	Medium	0.7	5.5	security@vmware.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database
6.2	CVSS 3.1	Medium	—	—	vmware via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H (score shown at the top: nvd@nist.gov)

Scoring entities (NIST, CNA, ADP) score independently; each score is shown with its origin. For prioritization we use 7.2 (NVD (NIST)) as a conservative provisional reference — not a definitive official score.

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

Other CVEs with this weakness →

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 15, 2026 · 3 reading(s) · max 0.73%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).

web/proxy/WAF logsnetwork IDS/IPS

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

2026
Affected products added · vmware/vmware aria operations, vmware/vmware cloud foundation, vmware/vmware telco cloud platform, vmware/vmware telco c
Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
SSVC assessment updated
Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Record published
Oct 13, 2026
Fix documented
Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
CVSS changed · 7.2
Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
Source status changed · → Analyzed
Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
Record created in this database
Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
CVE published
Feb 25, 2026 · vmware

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

2 on the record

support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvis
Patch, Vendor Advisory, vendor-advisory, NIST National Vulnerability Database
techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/aria/aria-operations/8-18/vmware-aria-operations-818
Release Notes, release-notes, NIST National Vulnerability Database

Elsewhere on this site

Vmware
every CVE for this vendor

Privilege escalation
same class

CWE-269
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

Low CVE-2026-41709 ESX insufficient logging vulnerability Jul 30, 2026
Critical CVE-2026-59310 Broadcom VMware vCenter Path Traversal Vulnerability KEV Jul 30, 2026
Critical CVE-2026-59309 vCenter authentication-bypass vulnerability Jul 30, 2026
Critical CVE-2026-47876 VMXNET3 out-of-bounds write vulnerability Jul 30, 2026
High CVE-2026-41703 Out-of-bounds read vulnerability Jul 30, 2026
Medium CVE-2026-41724 VMSA-2026-0004: VMware Cloud Foundation Operations updates address multiple vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-41722, CVE-2026-41723 and CVE-2026-41724) Jun 8, 2026

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-22721 is "VMware Aria Operations privilege escalation vulnerability", rated High. It affects Aria Operations (Vmware); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 7.2 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.73% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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