KEV Intelligence

Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2025-22225

VMware ESXi

VMware / VMware ESXi · affected before ESXi80U3d-24585383

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Severity
CVSS 8.2 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
1.0%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2025-22225 is a vulnerability affecting VMware VMware ESXi and 3 other products. VMware ESXi contains an arbitrary write vulnerability. A malicious actor with privileges within the VMX process may trigger an...

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

VMware / VMware ESXi affected before esxi80u3d-24585383.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

VMware ESXi

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.

Vendor Product Affected Status
n/a VMware ESXi Before ESXi80U3d-24585383 Affected
n/a VMware ESXi Before ESXi80U2d-24585300 Affected
n/a VMware ESXi Before ESXi70U3s-24585291 Affected
n/a VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x, 4.5.x Affected
n/a VMware Telco Cloud Platform 5.x, 4.x, 3.x, 2.x Affected
n/a VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure 3.x, 2.x Affected
Published
04 Mar 2025
Exploitation Reported
04 Mar 2025
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None

Tags

nessus_scanner cisa malware

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 04 Mar 2025

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Used in malware

CISA

Recorded 02 Jun 2026

Malware families have been linked to exploitation of this CVE.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

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Source Added
CISA First 2025-03-04 00:00 UTC
CVE 2026-08-04 04:41 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
0
User-Agents
0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/237304 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

8.2 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

1.0%

Weaknesses

Write-what-where Condition CWE-123

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. First public exploitation report

    Exploit observed in malware

  3. Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  4. CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  5. Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  6. CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2025-22225

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2025-22225",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 8.2,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.00997,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

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