Broadcom has issued critical security patches addressing three zero-day vulnerabilities in VMware products that have been actively exploited in real-world attacks. Reported by the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, these vulnerabilities impact a wide range of VMware solutions, including ESXi, vSphere, Workstation, Fusion, Cloud Foundation, and Telco Cloud Platform. If successfully exploited, attackers with administrative privileges on a virtual machine (VM) can escape the VM sandbox and execute code on the hypervisor, leading to potential system-wide compromise.
Given the widespread use of VMware products in enterprise, cloud, and telecommunications environments, organizations must apply these patches immediately to mitigate security risks.
Breakdown of the VMware Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
The three vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22225, and CVE-2025-22226, present serious risks by allowing privilege escalation, arbitrary code execution, and hypervisor compromise.
- CVE-2025-22224 (Critical – VCMI Heap Overflow)
A heap overflow vulnerability in the VMware Content Management Interface (VCMI) allows local attackers with administrative privileges on a VM to execute arbitrary code as the VMX process on the host. This could enable attackers to move laterally within the virtualized environment and escalate their privileges. - CVE-2025-22225 (High – ESXi Arbitrary Write)
This vulnerability affects VMware ESXi and enables attackers to perform arbitrary memory writes. Exploiting this flaw could allow an attacker to modify system data, bypass security restrictions, or execute malicious code with elevated privileges. - CVE-2025-22226 (High – Workstation and Fusion Privilege Escalation)
This vulnerability impacts VMware Workstation and Fusion, allowing an attacker with local admin privileges inside a VM to escape the virtualized environment and execute commands on the host system.
Exploitation and Security Implications
According to Broadcom, there is evidence that these vulnerabilities have been actively exploited in the wild. Attackers who have already compromised a VM’s guest OS and gained administrator or root access can use these flaws to break out of the VM sandbox and compromise the hypervisor itself.
Such an exploit can have severe consequences in enterprise and cloud environments, where a single compromised hypervisor can give attackers access to multiple virtual machines running on the same infrastructure. This can lead to data breaches, ransomware deployment, or disruption of critical business operations.
Broadcom’s Response and Patch Availability
Broadcom has released patches for affected VMware products and strongly urges customers to apply these updates immediately. The company has also committed to reviewing its internal security testing processes to prevent similar vulnerabilities in the future.
VMware customers can find the necessary patches and remediation steps in Broadcom’s official security advisory. Organizations that cannot immediately patch should consider implementing temporary mitigations, such as restricting administrative access, monitoring for unusual VM activity, and segmenting virtualized workloads to limit lateral movement.
Protecting Your VMware Environment
To minimize exposure to future VMware vulnerabilities, security teams should follow best practices for securing virtualized environments:
- Apply security patches as soon as they become available to prevent attackers from exploiting known vulnerabilities.
- Limit administrative access to virtualized infrastructure and enforce the principle of least privilege.
- Monitor hypervisor activity for signs of anomalous behavior, such as unexpected VM reconfigurations or unauthorized access attempts.
- Implement network segmentation to restrict lateral movement between virtualized environments and isolate critical workloads.
- Regularly conduct vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and remediate security gaps in the infrastructure.
How Can Netizen Help?
Netizen ensures that security gets built-in and not bolted-on. Providing advanced solutions to protect critical IT infrastructure such as the popular “CISO-as-a-Service” wherein companies can leverage the expertise of executive-level cybersecurity professionals without having to bear the cost of employing them full time.
We also offer compliance support, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and more security-related services for businesses of any size and type.
Additionally, Netizen offers an automated and affordable assessment tool that continuously scans systems, websites, applications, and networks to uncover issues. Vulnerability data is then securely analyzed and presented through an easy-to-interpret dashboard to yield actionable risk and compliance information for audiences ranging from IT professionals to executive managers.
Netizen is an ISO 27001:2013 (Information Security Management), ISO 9001:2015, and CMMI V 2.0 Level 3 certified company. We are a proud Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor for hiring and retention of military veterans.
Questions or concerns? Feel free to reach out to us any time –
https://www.netizen.net/contact
