CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22225, CVE-2025-22226: Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi, Workstation and Fusion Exploited
Broadcom published an advisory for three flaws in several VMware products that were exploited in the wild as zero-days. Organizations are advised to apply the available patches.
Background
On March 4, Broadcom published an advisory (VMSA-2025-0004) for three zero-day vulnerabilities across multiple VMware products:
| CVE | Description | CVSSv3 |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2025-22224 | VMware ESXi and Workstation Heap-Overflow Vulnerability | 9.3 |
| CVE-2025-22225 | VMware ESXi Arbitrary Write Vulnerability | 8.2 |
| CVE-2025-22226 | VMware ESXi, Workstation and Fusion Information Disclosure Vulnerability | 7.1 |
In addition to its advisory, Broadcom published a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document for these vulnerabilities: VMSA-2025-0004: Questions & Answers.
Analysis
CVE-2025-22224 is a TOCTOU (Time-of-Check Time-of-Use) vulnerability in VMWare ESXi and Workstation. A local, authenticated attacker with admin privileges could exploit this vulnerability to gain code execution on the virtual-machine executable (VMX) process.
CVE-2025-22225 is an arbitrary write vulnerability in VMware ESXi. A local, authenticated attacker with requisite privileges could exploit this vulnerability through the VMX process to escape the sandbox.
CVE-2025-22226 is an information-disclosure vulnerability in VMware ESXi, Workstation and Fusion. An authenticated, local attacker with admin privileges could exploit this vulnerability to cause the VMX process to leak contents from memory.
Exploited in the wild as zero-days
According to Broadcom, these vulnerabilities were discovered and disclosed by researchers at the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and observed being exploited in the wild. No specific details about in-the-wild exploitation were shared.
Proof of concept
At the time this blog post was published, there were no proofs-of-concept (PoCs) available for any of these three vulnerabilities.
Solution
VMware has released fixed versions for affected VMware products:
| Affected Products | CVEs | Fixed Versions |
|---|---|---|
| VMware ESXi 8.0 | CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22225, CVE-2025-22226 | ESXi80U3d-24585383, ESXi80U2d-24585300 |
| VMware ESXi 7.0 | CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22225, CVE-2025-22226 | ESXi70U3s-24585291 |
| VMware Workstation 17.x | CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22226 | 17.6.3 |
| VMware Fusion 13.x | CVE-2025-22226 | 13.6.3 |
Additionally, VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Telco Cloud Platform and Telco Cloud Infrastructure are affected. An asynchronous patch is available for VMware Cloud Foundation, while Telco Cloud Platform customers should update to a fixed ESXi version. For more information, please refer to Broadcom’s advisory.
Identifying affected systems
A list of Tenable plugins for these vulnerabilities can be found on the individual CVE pages for CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22225, and CVE-2025-22226 as they’re released. These links will display all available plugins for these vulnerabilities, including upcoming plugins in our Plugins Pipeline.
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Satnam Narang
Satnam joined Tenable in 2018. He has over 15 years experience in the industry (M86 Security and Symantec). He contributed to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, helped develop a Social Networking Guide for the National Cyber Security Alliance, uncovered a huge spam botnet on Twitter and was the first to report on spam bots on Tinder. He's appeared on NBC Nightly News, Entertainment Tonight, Bloomberg West, and the Why Oh Why podcast.
Interests outside of work: Satnam writes poetry and makes hip-hop music. He enjoys live music, spending time with his three nieces, football and basketball, Bollywood movies and music and Grogu (Baby Yoda).
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