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Mallory
MediumCISA KEVExploited in the wildPublic exploit

Out-of-bounds Read in VMware HGFS

IdentifiersCVE-2025-22226CWE-125· Out-of-bounds Read

CVE-2025-22226 is an information disclosure vulnerability affecting VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion. The flaw is caused by an out-of-bounds read in HGFS (Host-Guest File System). According to the provided content, a malicious actor with administrative privileges inside a guest virtual machine can exploit the issue to leak memory from the VMX process. In reported exploit chains, this memory disclosure was used to recover VMX memory layout information, including the VMX base address, to aid subsequent exploitation steps.

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation allows disclosure of memory from the VMX process. This can expose sensitive process memory and, in chained attacks, can be used to defeat mitigations such as ASLR by revealing the VMX base address. The content indicates this vulnerability has been used together with CVE-2025-22224 and CVE-2025-22225 as part of guest-to-host VM escape chains targeting ESXi environments.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

If immediate patching is not possible, reduce exposure by restricting administrative access within guest VMs, limiting untrusted users' ability to obtain VM administrator/root privileges, and monitoring for signs of exploit chaining involving HGFS/VMCI abuse, unusual VMX process behavior, unsigned driver loading, and suspicious VSOCK activity. However, no specific vendor workaround is provided in the supplied content, so patching is the primary mitigation.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the VMware/Broadcom security updates released in advisory VMSA-2025-0004 for affected VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion versions. Upgrade to fixed builds provided by the vendor and prioritize patching because the content states the vulnerability was exploited in the wild. Systems running unsupported or end-of-life ESXi versions may require upgrade or retirement if no vendor fix is available.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
BroadcomCloud Foundationapplication
BroadcomEsxioperating_system
BroadcomFusionapplication
BroadcomTelco Cloud Infrastructureapplication
BroadcomTelco Cloud Platformapplication
BroadcomWorkstationapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence4

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware6

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures1

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity9

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.