Reference page — cumulative record through Monday, October 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2023-20900

CVE-2023-20900HIGH

n/a VMware Tools — A malicious actor that has been granted Guest Operation Privileges https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/8.0/vsphere-security/GUID-6A…

  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   A   H   N   N  U  H  H  H    7.5   .0146   73.2     —

AFFECTED
  Product                       Versions  Fixed
  VMware Tools                  12.x.x –  —
  VMware Tools                  10.3.x –  —
  VMware Tools (open-vm-tools)  12.x.x –  —

TIMELINE
  Nov 1   Reserved by vmware
  Aug 31  Published (CNA: vmware)
  Oct 8   RESCORED — CVE-2023-20900 (VMware Tools). CVSS 7.1 → 7.5 (NVD).

CWE-294 · CNA: vmware · CVSS v3.1 · 9 references · NVD status: Modified

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 .

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
November 1, 2022	Reserved	Reserved by vmware
August 31, 2023	Published	Published (CNA: vmware)
October 8, 2026	RESCORED	RESCORED — CVE-2023-20900 (VMware Tools). CVSS 7.1 → 7.5 (NVD).

Affected

Affected products and packages — 3 rows
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
n/a	VMware Tools	—	12.x.x	—
n/a	VMware Tools	—	10.3.x	—
n/a	VMware Tools (open-vm-tools)	—	12.x.x	—

Weaknesses

CWE-294

References (9)

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

Authoritative record: CVE-2023-20900 at cve.org

Weaknesses: CWE-294

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2023-20900 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Monday, October 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.