• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 

Hardcoded credentials found in HPE Aruba Instant On Wi-Fi devices

 | 

MuddyWater deploys new DCHSpy variants amid Iran-Israel conflict

 | 

U.S. CISA urges to immediately patch Microsoft SharePoint flaw adding it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Microsoft issues emergency patches for SharePoint zero-days exploited in "ToolShell" attacks

 | 

SharePoint zero-day CVE-2025-53770 actively exploited in the wild

 | 

Singapore warns China-linked group UNC3886 targets its critical infrastructure

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Fortinet FortiWeb flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 54

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 533 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Radiology Associates of Richmond data breach impacts 1.4 million people

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Security
  • VMware has no evidence of zero-day exploitation in ESXiArgs ransomware attacks

VMware has no evidence of zero-day exploitation in ESXiArgs ransomware attacks

Pierluigi Paganini February 07, 2023

VMware said there is no evidence that threat actors are exploiting a zero-day flaw in its software as part of an ongoing ESXiArgs ransomware campaign.

VMware said that it found no evidence that the threat actors behind the ongoing ESXiArgs ransomware attacks are leveraging a zero-day vulnerability in VMware ESXi servers.

“VMware has not found evidence that suggests an unknown vulnerability (0-day) is being used to propagate the ransomware used in these recent attacks.” reads the latest advisory published by the company. “Most reports state that End of General Support (EOGS) and/or significantly out-of-date products are being targeted with known vulnerabilities which were previously addressed and disclosed in VMware Security Advisories (VMSAs).” 

ESXi is VMware’s hypervisor, a technology that allows organizations to host several virtualized computers running multiple operating systems on a single physical server. The Computer Emergency Response Team of France (CERT-FR) was the first to notice and send an alert about the attack. Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore have also issued warnings for organizations to take immediate action to protect their systems.

Researchers from GreyNoise reported that 19 IP addresses have been observed attempting to exploit CVE-2021-21974.

The French Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-FR) warned that threat actors are targeting VMware ESXi servers to deploy ransomware.

CERT-FR reported that threat actors behind these ransomware attackers are actively exploiting the vulnerability CVE-2021-21974.

The vulnerability is an OpenSLP heap-overflow flaw in VMware ESXi that can be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely on vulnerable devices. The vulnerability affects the following systems:

  • ESXi 7.x versions earlier than ESXi70U1c-17325551
  • ESXi versions 6.7.x earlier than ESXi670-202102401-SG
  • ESXi versions 6.5.x earlier than ESXi650-202102101-SG

The virtualization giant addressed the CVE-2021-21974 bug in February 2021.

“On February 3, 2023, CERT-FR became aware of attack campaigns targeting VMware ESXi hypervisors with the aim of deploying ransomware on them.” reads the alert published by CERT-FR. “In the current state of investigations , these attack campaigns seem to exploit the CVE-2021-21974 vulnerability, for which a patch has been available since February 23, 2021. This vulnerability affects the Service Location Protocol ( SLP ) service and allows a attacker to remotely exploit arbitrary code. The systems currently targeted would be ESXi hypervisors in version 6.x and prior to 6.7.”

CERT-FR urges applying all patches available for the ESXi hypervisor, it also recommends performing a system scan to detect any signs of compromise.

The virtualization giant also recommends disabling the SLP service on ESXi hypervisors that have not been updated.

“With this in mind, we are advising customers to upgrade to the latest available supported releases of vSphere components to address currently known vulnerabilities.” continues the latest advisory. “In addition, VMware has recommended disabling the OpenSLP service in ESXi since 2021 when ESXi 7.0 U2c and ESXi 8.0 GA began shipping with the service disabled by default.” c

VMware also informs its customers it has general ransomware resources available at our Ransomware Resource Center.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, VMware)


facebook linkedin twitter

Cybercrime ESXiArgs Hacking information security news IT Information Security malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News VMware VMWare ESXi

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 24, 2025
DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 24, 2025
Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

    Security / July 24, 2025

    Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

    Malware / July 24, 2025

    U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 24, 2025

    U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

    Hacking / July 23, 2025

    Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

    Security / July 23, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT