Cloud Security

Critical Authentication Bypass Flaw in VMware Cloud Director Appliance

VMware flaw carries a CVSS severity-score of 9.8/10 and can be exploited to bypass login restrictions when authenticating on certain ports.

Ryan Naraine

November 14, 2023

Cloud computing and virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday rushed out an urgent patch for a gaping authentication bypass bug affecting its Cloud Director Appliance product.

The vulnerability, tagged as CVE-2023-34060, carries a CVSS severity-score of 9.8 out of 10 and can be exploited by a malicious actor with network access to the appliance to bypass login restrictions when authenticating on certain ports.

The company’s security response team said the code defect affects the VMware Cloud Director Appliance (VCD Appliance), specifically in instances where the appliance has been upgraded to version 10.5 from an older version.

“On a new installation of VMware Cloud Director Appliance 10.5, the bypass is not present,” according to a critical bulletin documenting the issue.

The company said the vulnerability originates from the underlying Photon OS but emphasized that other appliances are not impacted by the authentication bypass bug.

VMware is recommending that businesses using the Cloud Director Appliance follow its documented guidance to mitigate the issue.

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Written By Ryan Naraine

Ryan Naraine is Editor-at-Large at SecurityWeek and host of the popular Security Conversations podcast series. He is a security community engagement expert who has built programs at major global brands, including Intel Corp., Bishop Fox and GReAT. Ryan is a founding-director of the Security Tinkerers non-profit, an advisor to early-stage entrepreneurs, and a regular speaker at security conferences around the world.

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