A critical security vulnerability in the VMware Aria Operations for Logs analysis tool for cloud management — known as CVE-202-20864 — now has an exploit available that allows threat actors to run arbitrary code as root, no user interaction necessary.

The flaw was originally patched in April, along with several security updates for less severe vulnerabilities. Now, VMware asserts that waiting any longer to apply the fixes to VMware software should be a nonstarter.

It is strongly advised that users apply the patches to this vulnerability to prepare for any incoming attacks should they arise, especially given that VMware is one of cyberattackers’ favorite targets when it comes to the cloud.

“To remediate CVE-2023-20864 apply the updates listed in the ‘Fixed Version’ column of the ‘Response Matrix’ below,” VMware stated in its advisory regarding the issue.