CVE-2020-3952 (GCVE-0-2020-3952)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2020-04-10 13:55 – Updated: 2025-10-21 23:35Summary
Under certain conditions, vmdir that ships with VMware vCenter Server, as part of an embedded or external Platform Services Controller (PSC), does not correctly implement access controls.
Severity
9.8 (Critical)
SSVC
Exploitation: active
Automatable: yes
Technical Impact: total
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2025-01-29 17:59 UTC
CWE
- Critical Information Disclosure
- CWE-306 - Missing Authentication for Critical Function
Assigner
References
3 references
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2… | x_refsource_MISC |
| http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157896/VMwar… | x_refsource_MISC |
| https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilit… | government-resource |
Impacted products
1 product
| Vendor | Product | Version | |
|---|---|---|---|
| n/a | VMware vCenter Server |
Affected:
vCenter Server 6.7 (embedded or external PSC) prior to 6.7u3f is affected by CVE-2020-3952 if it was upgraded from a previous release line such as 6.0 or 6.5. Clean installations of vCenter Server 6.7 (embedded or external PSC) are not affected.
|
CISA
Known Exploited Vulnerability - GCVE BCP-07 Compliant
KEV entry ID: f6ec82fe-0f3d-47d1-8f42-fefd5f471ec8
Exploited: Yes
Timestamps
First Seen: 2021-11-03
Asserted: 2021-11-03
Scope
Notes: VMware vCenter Server Information Disclosure Vulnerability | Affected: VMware / vCenter Server | Description: VMware vCenter Server contains an information disclosure vulnerability in the VMware Directory Service (vmdir) when the Platform Services Controller (PSC) does not correctly implement access controls. Successful exploitation allows an attacker with network access to port 389 to extract sensitive information. | Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions. | Due date: 2022-05-03 | Known ransomware campaign use (KEV): Unknown | Notes (KEV): https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-3952
Evidence
Type: Vendor Report
Signal: Successful Exploitation
Confidence: 80%
Source: cisa-kev
Details
| Cwes | CWE-306 |
|---|---|
| Feed | CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog |
| Product | vCenter Server |
| Due Date | 2022-05-03 |
| Date Added | 2021-11-03 |
| Vendorproject | VMware |
| Vulnerabilityname | VMware vCenter Server Information Disclosure Vulnerability |
| Knownransomwarecampaignuse | Unknown |
References
Created: 2026-10-02 08:10 CEST
| Updated: 2026-10-02 08:10 CEST
Previdian
Known Exploited Vulnerability - GCVE BCP-07 Compliant
KEV entry ID: d0dba5f6-c379-475f-8575-1046e0d29271
Exploited: Yes
Timestamps
First Seen: 2021-11-03
Asserted: 2021-11-03
Scope
Notes: Under certain conditions, vmdir that ships with VMware vCenter Server, as part of an embedded or external Platform Services Controller (PSC), does... | Affected: VMware / VMware vCenter Server | CVSS: 9.8 (CRITICAL) | EPSS: 0.90384 | Used in malware: unknown | Not yet in CISA KEV: False
Evidence
Type: Public Report
Signal: Successful Exploitation
Confidence: 70%
Source: previdian
Details
| Feed | Previdian (previdian.com) |
|---|---|
| Title | Under certain conditions, vmdir that ships with VMware vCenter Server, as part of an embedded or external Platform Services Controller (PSC), does... |
| Cve Id | CVE-2020-3952 |
| Vendor | VMware |
| Ghsa Id | None |
| Product | VMware vCenter Server |
| Added Date | 2021-11-03T00:00:00.000Z |
| Cvss Score | 9.8 |
| Epss Score | 0.90384 |
| Previous Ids | |
| Cvss Severity | CRITICAL |
| Virtual Patch | False |
| Cvss Estimated | False |
| Epss Percentile | 0.99797 |
| Used In Malware | unknown |
| Vulnerability Id | CVE-2020-3952 |
| Ahead Of Cisa Kev | None |
| Not Yet In Cisa Kev | False |
References
Created: 2026-10-02 09:10 CEST
| Updated: 2026-10-02 09:10 CEST
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Experimental. This forecast is provided for visualization only and may change without notice. Do not use it for operational decisions.
Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
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The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the
vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base
model, served locally by ML-Gateway.
They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
Browse all ATT&CK techniques and the vulnerabilities related to each.
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Related by attack behaviour
Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.
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