Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-34046

Race Condition in Vmware Fusion 13.0.0 – 13.5

Race Condition
Published
20 October 2023
Modified
07 March 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.7
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0013 3th percentile
Risk Priority 47 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-34046 is a medium-severity Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CWE-367) vulnerability in Vmware Fusion. Its CVSS base score is 6.7 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

VMware Fusion(13.x prior to 13.5) contains a TOCTOU (Time-of-check Time-of-use) vulnerability that occurs during installation for the first time (the user needs to drag or copy the application to a folder from the '.dmg' volume) or when installing an upgrade.…

more

A malicious actor with local non-administrative user privileges may exploit this vulnerability to escalate privileges to root on the system where Fusion is installed or being installed for the first time.

CWE(s)
CWE-367

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-41702Same product: Vmware Fusion
CVE-2023-20871Same product: Apple Mac Os X
CVE-2023-34045Same product: Apple Mac Os X
CVE-2023-34044Same product: Apple Mac Os X
CVE-2023-20872Same product: Apple Mac Os X
CVE-2023-23520Same vendor: Apple
CVE-2022-48618Same vendor: Apple
CVE-2026-22751Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2025-22224Same vendor: Vmware
CVE-2026-41002Same vendor: Vmware

Affected Assets

vmware
fusion
13.0.0 — 13.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2
  • V17.2.6

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

AU-8 Time Stamps
addresses: CWE-367

Timestamps meeting UTC or offset standards help identify TOCTOU issues through precise chronological reconstruction of check/use operations.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly include coding standards and reviews that prevent TOCTOU race conditions.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.17 Clock synchronization none match
none

Reliable, synchronized time across systems narrows the exploitable window in which a resource state can change between a security check and its use.

References