CVE-2019-5544 — VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
Overview
VMware ESXi and Horizon Desktop as a Service (DaaS) OpenSLP contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability that allows an attacker with network access to port 427 to overwrite the heap of the OpenSLP service to perform remote code execution.
Vulnerability details
- CVE ID
- CVE-2019-5544
- Vulnerability
- VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
- Vendor
- VMware
- Affected products
- VMware: VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS
- Severity
- HIGH
- Exploitation status
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV)
- Published
- 2021-11-03
Remediation guidance
CVE-2019-5544 is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog — U.S. federal civilian agencies are required to remediate it under Binding Operational Directive 22-01. Treat it as a priority for every environment.
Apply the vendor's official security update for VMware the affected product as soon as possible. Where a patch is unavailable, apply vendor mitigations or isolate/segment exposed systems.
Hunt for indicators of compromise tied to this vulnerability and confirm logging/EDR coverage on affected assets.
Authoritative references
Remediate CVE-2019-5544 — and stay ahead of the next one
CVE-2019-5544 is listed in the CISA KEV catalog as actively exploited — treat remediation as urgent. Scan your domain free to see whether CVE-2019-5544 and other VMware issues affect you and get a prioritized remediation report (full report from ₹999) — or stream the full feed of 1,600+ actively-exploited CVEs straight into your SOC.
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