CVE-2022-35781 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability identified in Microsoft Azure Site Recovery's VMWare to Azure replication feature, specifically affecting version 9.0. This vulnerability is classified under CWE-269, which relates to improper privileges management. The flaw allows an attacker with high privileges (PR:H) and network access (AV:N) to escalate their privileges further within the Azure Site Recovery environment without requiring user interaction (UI:N). The vulnerability impacts the integrity and availability of the system, as indicated by the CVSS vector (I:H/A:H), meaning an attacker could potentially alter critical system components or disrupt replication services. The exploitability is rated as partially functional (E:P), and the vulnerability is officially published with a CVSS v3.1 score of 6.5, categorized as medium severity. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches or mitigation links are provided in the source data. The vulnerability's scope is unchanged (S:U), meaning it affects only the vulnerable component and does not propagate beyond it. Given that the attack requires existing high privileges, the vulnerability primarily concerns insider threats or attackers who have already compromised accounts with elevated rights. The absence of user interaction reduces the complexity of exploitation once the attacker has network access and sufficient privileges. This vulnerability could allow attackers to manipulate or disrupt disaster recovery processes, potentially leading to data loss or downtime during critical failover operations.

For European organizations relying on Azure Site Recovery for disaster recovery and business continuity, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the integrity and availability of their replicated workloads. An attacker exploiting this flaw could escalate privileges within the recovery environment, potentially modifying or disabling replication tasks, corrupting backup data, or causing failover failures. This could result in prolonged downtime, data inconsistency, or loss during disaster recovery scenarios, impacting critical services and compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR. Organizations in sectors with stringent uptime and data integrity requirements, such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure, could face operational disruptions and reputational damage. Since Azure Site Recovery is a cloud-based service widely used across Europe, the vulnerability could affect multinational enterprises and public sector entities that depend on seamless recovery from VMware environments to Azure. However, the requirement for high privileges to exploit the vulnerability somewhat limits the attack surface to insiders or attackers who have already breached initial defenses.

Given the absence of an official patch link, European organizations should immediately review and tighten access controls around Azure Site Recovery environments, ensuring that only necessary personnel have high-level privileges. Implement strict role-based access control (RBAC) policies and regularly audit privileged accounts for unusual activity. Network segmentation should be enforced to limit exposure of Azure Site Recovery components to only trusted networks and systems. Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts to reduce the risk of credential compromise. Monitor logs and alerts for anomalous activities related to replication jobs and privilege escalations. Additionally, organizations should engage with Microsoft support or their Azure account representatives to obtain any available patches or workarounds. Testing disaster recovery procedures to verify integrity and availability post-mitigation is also recommended to ensure resilience against potential exploitation.