CVE-2021-21973

MEDIUM KEV NUCLEI

VMware vCenter Server and Cloud Foundation - Server-Side Request Forgery via vSphere Client Plugin

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

CVE-2021-21973 is actively exploited and listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, added March 7, 2022. EIP tracks 1 public exploit from researchers including freakanonymous. A Nuclei detection template is also available.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This repository contains a functional exploit for CVE-2021-21973, a directory traversal vulnerability in VMware vRealize Operations Manager. The exploit crafts malicious TAR archives to deploy a JSP webshell, enabling remote code execution (RCE) on vulnerable systems.

Description

The vSphere Client (HTML5) contains an SSRF (Server Side Request Forgery) vulnerability due to improper validation of URLs in a vCenter Server plugin. A malicious actor with network access to port 443 may exploit this issue by sending a POST request to vCenter Server plugin leading to information disclosure. This affects: VMware vCenter Server (7.x before 7.0 U1c, 6.7 before 6.7 U3l and 6.5 before 6.5 U3n) and VMware Cloud Foundation (4.x before 4.2 and 3.x before 3.10.1.2).

Exploits (1)

nomisec WORKING POC 1 stars
by freakanonymous · remote
https://github.com/freakanonymous/CVE-2021-21973-Automateme

This repository contains a functional exploit for CVE-2021-21973, a directory traversal vulnerability in VMware vRealize Operations Manager. The exploit crafts malicious TAR archives to deploy a JSP webshell, enabling remote code execution (RCE) on vulnerable systems.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: VMware vRealize Operations Manager (vROps)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Network access to the target vROps instance · Vulnerable version of vROps (pre-patch)
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 18, 2026 Full analysis →

Nuclei Templates (1)

VMware vSphere - Server-Side Request Forgery
MEDIUMby pdteam

References (2)

Core 2

Scores

CVSS v3 5.3
EPSS 0.8801
EPSS Percentile 99.7%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation active
Automatable yes
Technical Impact partial

Details

CISA KEV 2022-03-07
VulnCheck KEV 2021-02-25
InTheWild.io 2022-03-07
ENISA EUVD EUVD-2021-9144
CWE
CWE-918
Status published
Products (4)
vmware/cloud_foundation 3.0 - 3.10.1.2
vmware/vcenter_server 6.5 (19 CPE variants)
vmware/vcenter_server 6.7 (15 CPE variants)
vmware/vcenter_server 7.0 (7 CPE variants)
Published Feb 24, 2021
KEV Added Mar 07, 2022
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026