CVE-2026-41012
nicheMITM credential interception in VMware BOSH Director vCenter CPI
CVE-2026-41012 is a traffic-interception (man-in-the-middle) vulnerability in the BOSH Director vCenter CPI, caused by insufficient certificate validation and lack of pinning (CWE-295) on the HTTPS connection between BOSH Director and the vCenter REST API. An attacker positioned on the network path between the BOSH Director and vCenter can impersonate the vCenter REST API and capture the vCenter administrator username and password transmitted via HTTP Basic authentication, and this exposure applies to every CPI call, including routine deployment operations. Because the stolen credentials typically grant full administrative rights, the attacker can take over the entire virtualization estate managed by that vCenter instance, including all VMs, datastores, and networks. Any organization running BOSH Director against VMware vCenter, typically Tanzu Application Service or Cloud Foundry foundations deployed on vSphere, is affected; the specific affected CPI versions are not stated in the available data. No public proof of concept is known, the flaw is not in CISA KEV, and EPSS estimates roughly a 0.1 percent probability of exploitation within 30 days, so no exploitation is currently known.
What to do: Upgrade the vCenter CPI in your BOSH Director to the patched release identified in the VMware/Broadcom advisory (specific fixed versions are not stated in the available data, so consult the advisory), and apply the updated certificate validation/pinning guidance; note the vendor states that supplying a CA certificate alone does not mitigate the issue. Until patched, restrict and monitor the network path between BOSH Director and vCenter, watch for unexpected vCenter endpoints or credential use, and rotate vCenter administrator credentials if interception is suspected.
| VMware (Broadcom) BOSH Director vCenter CPI | — |
Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.
Traffic interception vulnerability in BOSH Director vCenter CPI allows attackers positioned between BOSH Director and vCenter to impersonate vCenter REST API and capture administrator credentials via HTTP Basic auth, leading to complete virtualization infrastructure takeover. An attacker who can intercept traffic between the BOSH Director and vCenter can establish a malicious server impersonating the vCenter REST API. When the BOSH Director makes CPI calls to perform routine cloud infrastructure operations, the attacker captures the vCenter administrator username and password transmitted via HTTP Basic authentication. The vulnerability stems from insufficient authentication security in the communication protocol between BOSH Director and vCenter. While HTTPS may be used, the lack of proper certificate validation and pinning allows attackers to successfully impersonate vCenter endpoints. Because vCenter credentials typically grant full administrative control over the entire virtualization estate, successful credential capture yields complete takeover of every VM, datastore, and network the CPI manages. This exposure exists on every CPI call (including routine deployment operations, not just when tags are configured) and cannot be mitigated by supplying a CA certificate alone. The attack impacts all infrastructure managed by the compromised vCenter instance, potentially affecting hundreds or thousands of VMs across multiple deployments and environments.
- Weakness
- CWE-295
- Vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
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