VMware ESXi: vulnerability flaw under attack

What is affected

VMware ESXi is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

VMware ESXi contains an arbitrary write vulnerability. Successful exploitation allows an attacker with privileges within the VMX process to trigger an arbitrary kernel write leading to an escape of the sandbox.

What an attacker can do

This is a vulnerability flaw. It lets an attacker misuse the product in a way its maker did not intend. CISA lists it because attackers are confirmed to be using it against real systems.

How it is reached

Needs access to the device or a file opened on it

Access the attacker needs

An administrator account

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

CISA records this vulnerability as known to be used in ransomware campaigns: attackers use it to get in, then encrypt files and demand payment.

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer VMware ESXi at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• support.broadcom.comsupport.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvis

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on March 4, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by March 25, 2025, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 1.0% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 62% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 8.2 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

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.