CVE-2025-22230

High

Published: 25 March 2025

Published

25 March 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0001 0.5th percentile

Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-22230 is a high-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (CWE-288) vulnerability in Broadcom (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 0.5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Directly mitigates the authentication bypass vulnerability by requiring timely identification, reporting, and patching of the flaw in VMware Tools for Windows.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

Enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, directly countering the improper access control that enables non-administrative privilege escalation within the guest VM.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

prevent

Applies least privilege to restrict non-administrative users and processes, limiting the high-privilege operations achievable via the authentication bypass.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The CVE describes a local authentication bypass due to improper access control in VMware Tools, enabling a non-admin user to perform high-privilege operations within the guest VM. This directly maps to exploitation of a vulnerability for privilege escalation.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

VMware Tools for Windows contains an authentication bypass vulnerability due to improper access control. A malicious actor with non-administrative privileges on a guest VM may gain ability to perform certain high privilege operations within that VM.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-22230 is an authentication bypass vulnerability in VMware Tools for Windows, stemming from improper access control (CWE-288). This flaw allows unauthorized elevation within the affected guest virtual machine (VM). The vulnerability received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2025-03-25.

A malicious actor with non-administrative privileges on the guest VM can exploit this issue locally with low complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation enables the attacker to perform certain high-privilege operations within that specific VM, potentially leading to high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

For mitigation details, including available patches, refer to the Broadcom security advisory at https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/25518.