CVE-2016-3643 — SolarWinds Virtualization Manager Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager 6.3.1 and earlier allow local users to gain privileges by leveraging a misconfiguration of sudo, as demonstrated by "sudo cat /etc/passwd."

01What is this vulnerability?

SolarWinds Virtualization Manager 6.3.1 and earlier allow local users to gain privileges by leveraging a misconfiguration of sudo, as demonstrated by "sudo cat /etc/passwd."

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Yes — actively exploited. Added to the CISA KEV catalog on 2021-11-03. Ransomware use: Unknown.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:

Open in Sigma generator →

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2016-06-17T15:00:00.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-10-21T23:55:51.005Z
• Added to CISA KEV: 2021-11-03
• BOD 22-01 due: 2022-05-03

09References

• www.exploit-db.com — https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/39967/
• seclists.org — http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/Jun/26
• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/137487/Solarwinds-Virtualization-Manager-6.…