CVE-2023-34045

VMware Fusion installer local privilege escalation

At a glance

Severity: MEDIUM 6.6
EPSS: EPSS 0.17 % · percentile 6 (2026-10-27)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2023-10-20
Updated: 2025-03-07
Assigner: vmware
NVD status: Modified

Description

VMware Fusion(13.x prior to 13.5) contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability that occurs during installation for the first time (the user needs to drag or copy the application to a folder from the '.dmg' volume) or when installing an upgrade. A malicious actor with local non-administrative user privileges may exploit this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root on the system where Fusion is installed or being installed for the first time.

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 6.6	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N	vmware
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 6.6	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N	NVD · security@vmware.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-269

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2023-38164
GCVE · GCVE-0-2023-34045

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2023-AVI-0870 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:a:vmware:fusion:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 13.0.0 < 13.5

Affected products

Product	Versions
VMware · Fusion	affected 13.x < 13.5

References

https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2023-0022.html

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)	Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD