cbcvebase.
CVE-2022-22955
published 2022-04-13

CVE-2022-22955: VMware Workspace ONE Access has two authentication bypass vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-22955 & CVE-2022-22956) in the OAuth2 ACS framework. A malicious actor may…

PriorityP273critical9.8CVSS 3.1
AVNACLPRNUINSUCHIHAH
EXPLOIT
EPSS
8.09%
94.1th percentile
VMware Workspace ONE Access has two authentication bypass vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-22955 & CVE-2022-22956) in the OAuth2 ACS framework. A malicious actor may bypass the authentication mechanism and execute any operation due to exposed endpoints in the authentication framework.

Affected

10 ranges
VendorProductVersion rangeFixed in
vmwareidentity_manager
vmwareidentity_manager
vmwareidentity_manager
vmwareidentity_manager
vmwarevrealize_automation
vmwarevrealize_automation>= 8.0 < 9.09.0
vmwareworkspace_one_access
vmwareworkspace_one_access
vmwareworkspace_one_access
vmwareworkspace_one_access

Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote

url/SAAS/API/1.0/REST/oauth2/generateActivationToken/Service__OAuth2Client
url/SAAS/API/1.0/REST/oauth2/activate
url/SAAS/auth/oauthtoken
otherhttp.favicon.hash:-1250474341
othericon_hash=-1250474341
  • Step 1 of exploit chain: Unauthenticated POST to the generateActivationToken endpoint for 'Service__OAuth2Client' returns HTTP 200 with JSON body containing 'activationToken' and '_links' fields — no credentials required.
  • Step 2 of exploit chain: The extracted activationToken is POSTed to /SAAS/API/1.0/REST/oauth2/activate; a successful bypass returns HTTP 200 JSON with 'client_id' and 'client_secret'.
  • Step 3 of exploit chain: The obtained client_id and client_secret are used in a client_credentials grant to /SAAS/auth/oauthtoken, yielding a valid access_token — confirming full authentication bypass.
  • Detect exploitation by monitoring for sequential unauthenticated POST requests to all three endpoints: /SAAS/API/1.0/REST/oauth2/generateActivationToken/*, /SAAS/API/1.0/REST/oauth2/activate, and /SAAS/auth/oauthtoken from the same source IP.
  • Content-Type header 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' with Content-Length: 0 on the generateActivationToken POST is a strong indicator of exploit attempt — no body is sent.
  • Identify exposed VMware Workspace ONE Access instances via Shodan favicon hash -1250474341 or FOFA icon_hash=-1250474341.
  • ·The vulnerability affects the OAuth2 ACS framework's exposed endpoints; the exploit chain requires exactly three sequential requests — detection logic should correlate all three steps rather than alerting on individual requests to reduce false positives.
  • ·The Nuclei template targets CVE-2022-22956 (the sibling bypass) but the exploit chain and endpoints are shared with CVE-2022-22955; detections covering these endpoints apply to both CVEs.

CVSS provenance

nvdv3.19.8CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
nvdv2.07.5HIGHAV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
vulncheck9.8CRITICAL
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