Loading vulnerability…
VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP) versions 5.5.x through 6.1.x ship with an SSH private key protected by a publicly known password. This design flaw enables remote attackers to authenticate to the VDP appliance over SSH using key-based authentication and obtain unauthorized login access, including root-level access as described in vendor advisories.
Mallory correlates every CVE against your assets, your vendors, and active adversary campaigns. Know which vulnerabilities matter for you, not just which ones are loud.
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Patch, then assume compromise.
1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos.
This repository contains a single Metasploit exploit module targeting VMware vSphere Data Protection (VDP) appliances (versions 5.5.x through 6.1.x) that are vulnerable due to a known SSH private key for the 'admin' user (CVE-2016-7456). The exploit leverages this key to authenticate via SSH and provides an interactive shell as the privileged 'admin' user, who can execute commands with sudo without a password. The module is written in Ruby and is structured according to Metasploit conventions, with options for specifying the target host and port, as well as SSH debugging and timeout settings. The main attack vector is network-based, exploiting the SSH service (default port 22) on the target appliance. The exploit is operational, as it includes a working payload (the known private key) and provides direct shell access upon success.
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
No public activity tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public activity observed for this vulnerability.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.