CVE-2025-22224: Buffer overflow vulnerability of various products such as VMware ESXi

About the Vulnerability

Introduction

VMware ESXi is a bare-metal virtualization hypervisor developed by VMware for creating and managing virtual machines (VMs). It's a core component of VMware vSphere, widely used in data centers, enterprise IT infrastructure, and cloud computing platforms.

Summary

On March 5, 2025, Sangfor FarSight Labs received notification that various products such as VMware ESXi component contains information of Buffer Overflow Vulnerability(CVE-2025-22224), classified as critical in threat level.

VMware's VMCI contains a severe heap overflow vulnerability. It allows local attackers with virtual machine management permissions to execute code on the host as the VMX process of the virtual machine. Additionally, VMware has also released two other high-risk vulnerabilities, CVE-2025-22225 and CVE-2025-22226, which allow attackers to trigger arbitrary kernel writes, resulting in sandbox escape and memory leaks. Note: All three vulnerabilities have been found exploited in the wild.

Affected Versions

VMware ESXi 8.0 < ESXi80U3d-24585383

VMware ESXi 8.0 < ESXi80U2d-24585300

VMware ESXi 7.0 < ESXi70U3s-24585291

VMware Workstation 17 < 17.6.3

VMware Fusion 13 < 13.6.3

VMware Cloud Foundation 5 < ESXi80U3d-24585383

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5 < ESXi70U3s-24585291

Solutions

Remediation Solutions

Check the System Version

Enter the command: vmware -vl in the command line to check the current ESXi version.

Official Solution

The latest version has been released to fix the vulnerability. It is recommended that affected users update the server to the following version:

VMware ESXi 8.0 ESXi80U3d-24585383

Download links and file:

https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/solutiondetails?patchId=5773

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/release-notes/esxi-update-and-patch-release-notes/vsphere-esxi-80u3d-release-notes.html

VMware ESXi 8.0 ESXi80U2d-24585300

Download links and file:

https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/solutiondetails?patchId=5772

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/release-notes/esxi-update-and-patch-release-notes/vsphere-esxi-80u2d-release-notes.html

VMware ESXi 7.0 ESXi70U3s-24585291

Download links and file:

https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/solutiondetails?patchId=5771

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/7-0/release-notes/esxi-update-and-patch-release-notes/vsphere-esxi-70u3s-release-notes.html

VMware Workstation 17.6.3

Download links and file:

https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro&displayGroup=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro%2017.0%20for%20Windows&release=17.6.3&os=&servicePk=undefined&language=EN&freeDownloads=true

https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro&displayGroup=VMware%20Workstation%20Pro%2017.0%20for%20Linux&release=17.6.3&os=&servicePk=undefined&language=EN&freeDownloads=true

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/workstation-pro/17-0/release-notes/vmware-workstation-1763-pro-release- notes.html

VMware Fusion 13.6.3

Download links and file:

https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware%20Fusion&displayGroup=VMware%20Fusion%2013&release=13.6.3&os=&servicePk=undefined&language=EN&freeDownloads=true

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/desktop-hypervisors/fusion-pro/13-0/release-notes/vmware-fusion-1363-release-notes.html

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x, 4.5.x

Download links and file:

https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?legacyId=88287

Telco Cloud Platform 5.x, 4.x, 3.x

Download links and file:

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-sde/telco-cloud/vmware-telco-cloud-platform/5-0/Chunk77140612.html

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-sde/telco-cloud/vmware-telco-cloud-platform/4-0/vmware-telco-cloud-platform-401-release-notes.html

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-sde/telco-cloud/vmware-telco-cloud-platform/3-1/Chunk1587463997.html#Chunk1587463997

Timeline

On March 5, 2025, Sangfor FarSight Labs received notification of Buffer overflow vulnerability of various products such as VMware ESXi.

On March 5, 2025, Sangfor FarSight Labs released a vulnerability alert.

Reference

https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/25390