ESXi
CVE-2025-22224
CRITICAL
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A04:2021 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture TOCTOU prevention
|
| Impact | Critical risk (CVSS 9.3, EPSS 52.7%). VM escape vulnerabilities are among the most severe in virtualized environments. Compromising the VMX process provides access to all other VMs on the same host and the host's management network. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker with admin privileges on a compromised VM triggers the TOCTOU race condition to escape the VM sandbox. Code execution as VMX on the host enables accessing disk files of other VMs, deploying malware across the virtual infrastructure. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Mar 28, 2026
VMware ESXi and Workstation contain a TOCTOU race condition leading to out-of-bounds write, allowing local administrators on VMs to escape the sandbox and execute code as the VMX process on the host.
Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
A Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use vulnerability in VMware ESXi and Workstation enables VM escape. A local admin on a VM can exploit the race condition to write beyond allocated boundaries, executing code as the VMX process on the host.
RemediationAI
Apply VMware security patches. Restrict VM admin access. Monitor ESXi hosts for anomalous VMX process behavior. Implement vSphere Hardening Guide recommendations.
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Technical ContextAI · show details
The CWE-367 TOCTOU race condition in the VM communication mechanism allows a malicious VM administrator to win a race between validation and use of shared data, triggering an out-of-bounds write that corrupts VMX process memory on the host.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
VMware ESXi, and Workstation contain a TOCTOU (Time-of-Check Time-of-Use) vulnerability that leads to an out-of-bounds write. A malicious actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine may exploit this issue to execute code as the virtual machine's VMX process running on the host.
Executive ViewAI
CVE-2025-22224 presents critical security risk rated CVSS 9.3. Successful exploitation could critically impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected systems. This vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild (KEV-listed) and requires immediate remediation. Immediate patching is required per CISA KEV mandate.
Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Implement network-level access controls to limit exposure; (2) Enable enhanced monitoring and alerting; (3) Apply principle of least privilege.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
CISA KEV
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
OpenSLP as used in VMware ESXi (7.0 before ESXi_7.0.1-0.0.16850804, 6.7 before ESXi670-202010401-SG, 6.5 before ESXi650-
Systems with microprocessors utilizing speculative execution and branch prediction may allow unauthorized disclosure of
VMware ESXi contains an arbitrary write vulnerability that allows privileged VMX process users to trigger kernel writes,
Untrusted search path vulnerability in the HGFS (aka Shared Folders) feature in VMware Tools 10.0.5 in VMware ESXi 5.0 t
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain an information disclosure vulnerability via HGFS out-of-bounds read, allowi
OpenSLP as used in ESXi and the Horizon DaaS appliances has a heap overwrite issue. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8),
In the add_match function in libbb/lineedit.c in BusyBox through 1.27.2, the tab autocomplete feature of the shell, used
VMware ESXi (ESXi 6.5 without patch ESXi650-201707101-SG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.7) and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.8
The Service Location Protocol (SLP, RFC 2608) allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to register arbitrary services.
The Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI) implementation in vmci.sys in VMware Workstation 8.x before 8.0.5 and
VMware ESXi (6.5 before ESXi650-201710401-BG), Workstation (12.x before 12.5.8), and Fusion (8.x before 8.5.9) contain a
VMware ESXi 6.5 without patch ESXi650-201703410-SG, 6.0 U3 without patch ESXi600-201703401-SG, 6.0 U2 without patch ESXi
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB