Detect CVE-2025-41244 - VMware Aria Operations & VMware Tools Privilege Escalation via Unsafe Actions in Sumo Logic CSE
Detects exploitation of CVE-2025-41244, a privilege escalation vulnerability in Broadcom VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools caused by privileges defined with unsafe actions (CWE-267). This KEV-listed vulnerability allows attackers with lower-privileged access to escalate privileges by abusing overly permissive or unsafe role/action definitions within VMware Aria Operations or VMware Tools components. Indicators include anomalous administrative API calls, unexpected privilege changes in VMware management interfaces, and suspicious process activity from VMware Tools guest utilities.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Privilege Escalation Persistence
Sumo Detection Query
_sourceCategory=vmware* OR _sourceCategory=windows/security
| parse regex field=_raw "(?P<event_type>vmtoolsd|vmwareuser|vmwaretray|aria|vrops)" nodrop
| parse regex field=_raw "EventCode=(?P<event_code>\d+)" nodrop
| parse regex field=_raw "(?i)(?P<priv_keyword>privilege|roleAssignment|unsafe.action|SeTcbPrivilege|SeDebugPrivilege|SeImpersonatePrivilege)" nodrop
| where !isNull(event_type) OR event_code in ("4672", "4673", "4674", "4728", "4732", "4756")
| eval risk = if(!isNull(event_type) AND !isNull(priv_keyword), "HIGH",
if(!isNull(event_type), "MEDIUM",
if(!isNull(priv_keyword), "MEDIUM", "LOW")))
| where risk in ("HIGH", "MEDIUM")
| timeslice 5m
| stats count as event_count, values(event_type) as vmware_processes, values(priv_keyword) as priv_keywords, values(event_code) as event_codes by _timeslice, _sourceHost, risk
| order by _timeslice descSumo Logic query correlating VMware process identifiers and privilege escalation keywords across VMware and Windows security log sources to detect CVE-2025-41244 exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- VMware platform administrators performing routine role and permission management
- VMware Tools guest agent performing authorized operations during VM snapshot or migration events
- Patch management workflows that modify VMware service privilege configurations
- Compliance scanning tools that audit VMware privilege assignments
Other platforms for CVE-2025-41244
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 3 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1VMware Tools Privilege Enumeration via vmtoolsd
Expected signal: DeviceProcessEvents showing schtasks.exe creating a task, followed by whoami.exe execution with SYSTEM context; Security Event 4672 (Special Logon for SYSTEM) and 4698 (Scheduled Task Created)
- Test 2Aria Operations Role Assignment via Unauthenticated or Low-Privilege API Call
Expected signal: VMware Aria Operations audit log entries recording the role assignment API call with the low-privilege token identity; HTTP 200 response on a vulnerable instance vs 403 on a patched instance
- Test 3VMware Tools Guest-to-Host Privilege Escalation Simulation
Expected signal: Linux auditd logs showing vmware-toolsd process activity and /dev/vmci access; VMware Tools log at /var/log/vmware-vmsvc-root.log recording guest operation invocations
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