Actively exploited in the wild
VMware ESXi Arbitrary Write Vulnerability
VMware - ESXi · 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-2025-22225
HighCVSS 8.2KEVExploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk59th percentile - higher than 59% of all known CVEs
Summary
VMware ESXi contains an arbitrary write vulnerability. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process may trigger an arbitrary kernel write leading to an escape of the sandbox.
Risk Assessment
The risk for the organization includes potential takeover of the ESXi host, which could compromise the integrity and confidentiality of all virtual machines.
Recommendation
It is recommended to apply patches provided by VMware immediately and restrict access to the VMX process to trusted administrators only.
Other vulnerabilities in VMware ESXi
See all- CVE-2024-37085MediumActively exploited
VMware ESXi contains an authentication bypass vulnerability. A malicious actor with sufficient Active Directory (AD) permissions can gain full access to an ESXi host that was configured to use AD for user management by re-creating the configured AD group ('ESXi Admins' by default) after it was deleted from AD.
- CVE-2020-3992CriticalActively exploited
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 ESXi650-202010401-SG) has a use-after-free issue. A malicious actor residing in the management network who has access to port 427 on an ESXi machine may be able to trigger a use-after-free in the OpenSLP service resulting in remote code execution.
Original NVD description (English source)
VMware ESXi contains an arbitrary write vulnerability. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process may trigger an arbitrary kernel write leading to an escape of the sandbox.