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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2017-4941

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2017-12-20
  • WeaknessCWE-119

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

VMware ESXi (6.0 before ESXi600-201711101-SG, 5.5 ESXi550-201709101-SG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8), and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.9) contain a vulnerability that could allow an authenticated VNC session to cause a stack overflow via a specific set of VNC packets. Successful exploitation of this issue could result in remote code execution in a virtual machine via the authenticated VNC session. Note: In order for exploitation to be possible in ESXi, VNC must be manually enabled in a virtual machine's .vmx configuration file. In addition, ESXi must be configured to allow VNC traffic through the built-in firewall.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2017-12-2015:29CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2017-4941?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2017-4941?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Vmware esxi
BranchAffectedFixed in
5.5= 5.5no fix published
6.0= 6.0no fix published
Vmware fusionversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
8.x≥ 8.0.0, < 8.5.98.5.9
Vmware workstation
BranchAffectedFixed in
12.x≥ 12.0.0, < 12.5.812.5.8

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.18.8read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.06read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-119read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score3.2 %2026-10-22

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2017-12-20
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-4941?

VMware ESXi (6.0 before ESXi600-201711101-SG, 5.5 ESXi550-201709101-SG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8), and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.9) contain a vulnerability that could allow an authenticated VNC session to cause a stack overflow via a specific set of VNC packets. Successful exploitation of this issue could result in remote code execution in a virtual machine via the authenticated VNC session. Note: In order for exploitation to be possible in ESXi, VNC must be manually enabled in a virtual machine's .vmx configuration file. In addition, ESXi must be configured to allow VNC traffic through the built-in firewall.

Is CVE-2017-4941 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2017-4941 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 3.2% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2017-4941?

CVE-2017-4941 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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