Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-22224 is a critical-severity Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition (CWE-367) vulnerability in Vmware Esxi. Its CVSS base score is 9.3 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked in the top 27% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-25 (Reference Monitor) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
VMware ESXi and Workstation contain a TOCTOU vulnerability that produces an out-of-bounds write, tracked as CWE-367. The flaw resides in the hypervisor components that manage virtual-machine interactions with the host and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.3.
A malicious actor who already possesses local administrative privileges inside a guest virtual machine can exploit the race condition to execute arbitrary code within the VMX process running on the host, thereby escaping the virtual-machine boundary and obtaining control over host resources.
The Broadcom security advisory at support.broadcom.com and the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog entry for this CVE describe available patches and recommended remediation steps for affected VMware products.
The vulnerability appears in CISA’s KEV catalog, confirming observed exploitation in the wild. Its EPSS score rose from lower values after disclosure to a peak of 0.5997 on 2026-02-18 before receding to the current 0.4680, indicating increased exploitation interest following public release.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-7603
Vulnerability Data
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…
more
running on the host.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 04 March 2025
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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V15.4.2V17.2.6
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
A reference monitor that is always invoked and analyzable structurally eliminates the non-atomic check-then-use pattern underlying TOCTOU.
Access enforcement that performs an atomic check-and-use decision directly stops the window in which a TOCTOU race can be exploited.
Process isolation limits the blast radius of a successful TOCTOU exploitation but does not remove the race itself.
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.
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.
Reliable, synchronized time across systems narrows the exploitable window in which a resource state can change between a security check and its use.