Actively exploited in the wild
VMware ESXi and Workstation TOCTOU Race Condition Vulnerability
VMware - ESXi and Workstation · Listed in the CISA KEV since 2025-03-04. This indicates confirmed attacks in production environments.
Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
CVE-2025-22224
CriticalCVSS 9.3KEVSummary
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.
Risk Assessment
An attacker with administrative privileges on a virtual machine can execute code in the context of the VMX process on the host, potentially leading to privilege escalation and host compromise. This poses a serious threat to virtualized environments.
Recommendation
Immediately apply available VMware security updates for ESXi and Workstation. Additionally, restrict administrative privileges on virtual machines to the minimum necessary.
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Original NVD description (English source)
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.