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How CVE-2025-22218 Works
CVE-2025-22218 is an information disclosure vulnerability in VMware Aria Operations for Logs. Attackers with “View Only Admin” permissions can exploit improper access controls to retrieve credentials stored for integrated VMware products. The system fails to enforce proper authorization checks when handling sensitive credential data in log metrics. This allows authenticated low-privilege users to bypass intended restrictions and access plaintext credentials through API endpoints or log parsing functions. The vulnerability stems from insufficient credential masking and insecure storage of authentication tokens within the logging subsystem.
DailyCVE Form
Platform: VMware Aria Operations
Version: Logs (pre-8.12.2)
Vulnerability: Credential Disclosure
Severity: Critical
Date: 05/14/2025
What Undercode Say:
Exploitation:
curl -X GET "https://<target>/api/credentials" -H "Authorization: Bearer <viewonly_token>"
import requests
headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer <viewonly_token>"}
response = requests.get("https://<target>/api/v1/metrics/creds", headers=headers)
print(response.text)
Detection:
grep -r "encryption_key" /var/log/vmware/loginsight/
Get-WinEvent -LogName "VMware Aria" | Where-Object {$_.Message -match "credential"}
Mitigation:
1. Apply VMware patch 8.12.2
2. Restrict View Only Admin permissions
<role name="ViewOnlyAdmin"> <deny permission="read_credentials"/> </role>
3. Enable credential encryption:
aria-config --set credential.encryption=true
Forensics:
journalctl -u vmware-aria --since "2025-01-01" | grep "unauthorized"
SELECT FROM access_logs WHERE user_role="ViewOnlyAdmin" AND request LIKE "%credentials%";
Network Controls:
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -m string --string "api/credentials" -j DROP
YARA Rule:
rule vmware_creds_leak {
strings:
$s1 = "password="
$s2 = "api_token="
condition:
any of them and filesize < 10MB
}
SIEM Query:
index=vmware sourcetype=aria (action=credential_access AND user_role=ViewOnlyAdmin)
Memory Analysis:
vol.py -f memory.dump --profile=LinuxVMwareAria x64 -p aria_process -Y "credential"
Sources:
Reported By: nvd.nist.gov
Extra Source Hub:
Undercode
