Detect CVE-2026-22719: VMware Aria Operations Command Injection in Splunk
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
SPL Detection Query
index=* sourcetype IN ("vmware:aria:log", "vmware:vcops:log", "linux:audit", "syslog") earliest=-1h
| eval parent_lower=lower(coalesce(parent_process, parentprocess, ppid_name))
| eval cmd_lower=lower(coalesce(command, cmd, process))
| where (match(parent_lower, "(?i)(vrops|vcops|aria|vmware-vcops)"))
AND (match(cmd_lower, "(?i)(bash|sh|python|perl|curl|wget|ncat|netcat|whoami|id\b|uname)"))
| eval severity="critical"
| stats count AS exec_count, values(cmd_lower) AS commands, earliest(_time) AS first_seen, latest(_time) AS last_seen BY host, parent_lower, src_user
| where exec_count > 0
| sort - exec_countDetects shell or scripting interpreter processes spawned as children of VMware Aria Operations services on Linux hosts, a signature of command injection exploitation.
Data Sources
Required Sourcetypes
False Positives & Tuning
- Scripted maintenance operations initiated by Aria Operations as part of normal product functionality
- Authorized IT automation tools (Ansible, Chef, Puppet) that run shell commands from Aria Operations service context
- Diagnostic scripts run by VMware support during troubleshooting 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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