Critical VMware vCenter Vulnerabilities Allow Authentication Bypass and Remote Code Execution (CVE-2026-59309, CVE-2026-59310)

Overview

On July 29, 2026, Broadcom published security advisory and can be exploited by unauthenticated attackers with network access to a vulnerable vCenter Server.

VMware vCenter Server provides centralized management for VMware vSphere environments, allowing administrators to manage ESXi hosts, virtual machines, resource allocation, availability, and other virtualization infrastructure from a central control plane. Compromise of vCenter can therefore provide an attacker with significant control over the virtualized environment and its associated workloads.

Both vulnerabilities are particularly significant because exploitation does not require prior authentication. However, an attacker must have network access to the affected vCenter services. Management interfaces such as vCenter are commonly restricted to internal or dedicated management networks, which can reduce exposure to internet-based attacks but does not mitigate the risk from an attacker who has already established access to an organization’s network.

At the time of publication, there is no known evidence of exploitation or scanning in the wild for either CVE-2026-59309 or CVE-2026-59310. There is also currently no known public proof-of-concept exploit code. However, vCenter Server has appeared on CISA’s KEV list ten times in the past for other vulnerabilities, so it is known that attackers target critical issues in this product. Customers running affected VMWare products are urged to patch on an urgent basis before exploitation in-the-wild occurs.

Mitigation guidance

Organizations running VMware vCenter Server should prioritize applying the updates identified by Broadcom in

VMware Cloud Foundation,

VMware vSphere Foundation

vCenter

9.0.x.x

Any

VMware Cloud Foundation 

vCenter

5.x

Any

Async patch to

VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure 

vCenter

3.0

Any

Refer to .

Rapid7 customers

Exposure Command, InsightVM, and Nexpose

Exposure Command, InsightVM, and Nexpose customers can assess exposure to CVE-2026-59309 and CVE-2026-59310 on VMware vCenter Server, Cloud Foundation, and vSphere Foundation products with unauthenticated vulnerability checks expected to be available in the July 30 content release.

Updates

• July 30, 2026: Initial publication.

• July 30, 2026: Updated customers section to reflect availability of vulnerability checks.