Detect CVE-2026-22719: VMware Aria Operations Command Injection in Elastic Security
Detects exploitation of CVE-2026-22719, a command injection vulnerability (CWE-77) in Broadcom VMware Aria Operations. This KEV-listed vulnerability allows attackers to inject and execute arbitrary OS commands through unsanitized input, potentially leading to full host compromise, lateral movement, and persistence within virtualized environments.
MITRE ATT&CK
Elastic Detection Query
sequence by host.name with maxspan=30s
[process where event.type == "start"
and process.name : ("vmware-vcops", "vcops-watchdog", "casa", "vmware-aria*")
and process.parent.name != null]
[process where event.type == "start"
and process.name : ("sh", "bash", "python*", "perl", "curl", "wget", "nc", "ncat", "whoami", "id", "uname")
and process.parent.name : ("vmware-vcops", "vcops-watchdog", "casa", "vmware-aria*")]EQL sequence detection identifying Aria Operations parent processes spawning suspicious child interpreters or recon utilities within a 30-second window.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Legitimate built-in Aria Operations health scripts that call system binaries
- Monitoring agents co-located on the same host spawning shell commands unrelated to Aria Operations
- Upgrade or patch processes that temporarily launch shell sessions
Other platforms for CVE-2026-22719
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 4 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 1Simulated Aria Operations Command Injection via curl
Expected signal: Linux audit log EXECVE record for 'id' with ppid matching an Aria Operations web service process; file creation event in /tmp/ by the service account.
- Test 2Post-Exploitation Reverse Shell Staging from Aria Operations Context
Expected signal: Audit log EXECVE for bash and curl with parent 'sudo'; network connection from host to attacker-lab.internal on port 80; file creation event for /tmp/.aria_agent.
- Test 3Recon Execution Simulating Aria Operations Command Injection Output
Expected signal: Linux audit EXECVE records for id, whoami, uname, cat, ss all with uid matching the vmware service account; all spawned as children of bash.
- Test 4Persistence via Cron Injection Simulating Post-Exploitation
Expected signal: Audit log records for bash and crontab execution under vmware service account; file write to vmware user crontab spool (/var/spool/cron/crontabs/vmware).
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Get the full detection package for CVE-2026-22719 including response playbook, investigation guide, and atomic red team tests.