VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi70U1b-17168206, 6.7 before ESXi670-202011101-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-202011301-SG) contains a privilege-escalation vulnerability that exists in the way certain system calls are being managed. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process only, may escalate their privileges on the affected system. Successful exploitation of this issue is only possible when chained with another vulnerability (e.g. CVE-2020-4004)
CVE-2020-4005
Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 7.8(medium)
- EG Risk
- 40(Track)EG Risk 40/100SSVC: Track
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity78% × 45%Exploitation0% × 40%Automatability30% × 15%Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence. - EPSS
- 30.7%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
November 20, 2020
Last Modified
October 31, 2025
References (2)
- security@vmwarehttps://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0026.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0026.html
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 46× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2020-4005?
When was CVE-2020-4005 disclosed?
Is CVE-2020-4005 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-4005?
How do I remediate CVE-2020-4005?
Dependency Blast Radius
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