CVE-2025-41250 is a command injection vulnerability classified under CWE-77, affecting VMware vCenter versions 7.0 and 8.0. The flaw arises from improper neutralization of special elements in SMTP headers used in notification emails triggered by scheduled tasks. A user with non-administrative privileges but granted permission to create scheduled tasks can exploit this vulnerability by crafting malicious SMTP headers, leading to command injection on the vCenter server. This can compromise the integrity of the system by executing unauthorized commands, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate system processes or escalate privileges indirectly. The vulnerability does not require user interaction and can be exploited remotely over the network, increasing its risk profile. Although no public exploits have been reported yet, the vulnerability’s presence in a critical management platform like vCenter makes it a high-value target. The scope of affected systems includes all VMware vCenter installations running the specified versions, which are widely used in enterprise data centers globally. The vulnerability’s CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L) indicates network attack vector, low attack complexity, requires low privileges, no user interaction, scope change, no confidentiality impact, high integrity impact, and low availability impact. This suggests attackers can leverage the vulnerability to alter system integrity without necessarily compromising confidentiality or causing major downtime. The lack of available patches at the time of reporting necessitates immediate compensating controls to mitigate risk.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk due to the extensive deployment of VMware vCenter in enterprise and critical infrastructure environments. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands on vCenter servers, potentially leading to unauthorized changes in system configurations, disruption of virtualization management, and indirect privilege escalation. This could affect the integrity of virtualized environments, impacting business continuity and operational reliability. Given the central role of vCenter in managing virtual machines, compromised systems could lead to cascading effects on hosted services and applications. The vulnerability’s exploitation could also facilitate lateral movement within networks, increasing the risk of broader compromise. European sectors such as finance, telecommunications, government, and energy, which heavily rely on virtualization, are particularly vulnerable. The potential for scope change and integrity impact elevates the threat to a high level, necessitating urgent attention to prevent exploitation that could disrupt critical services or lead to data manipulation.

1. Immediately review and restrict permissions related to scheduled task creation in VMware vCenter, limiting this capability to trusted administrative users only. 2. Monitor and audit scheduled task configurations and notification email settings for unusual or unauthorized changes that could indicate exploitation attempts. 3. Implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of vCenter servers to only necessary management networks and trusted hosts. 4. Employ intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) with rules tailored to detect anomalous SMTP header manipulations or command injection patterns. 5. Regularly update and patch VMware vCenter as soon as official fixes become available from VMware to address this vulnerability. 6. Conduct security awareness training for administrators on the risks of granting excessive permissions and the importance of monitoring scheduled tasks. 7. Utilize application whitelisting and endpoint protection solutions on vCenter servers to detect and block unauthorized command execution. 8. Establish incident response procedures specifically for virtualization management platforms to quickly identify and contain potential exploitation.