Cyber Posture

CVE-2025-22230

High

Published: 25 March 2025

Published
25 March 2025
Modified
15 April 2026
KEV Added
Patch
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

Description

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

Security Summary

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.

Details

CWE(s)
CWE-288

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
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

References