CVE-2025-41227

Host-process denial of service via guest options

Published May 20, 2025 · Updated Jun 24, 2025

Resource exhaustion in VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion allows guest OS users to interrupt the host process through certain guest options. VMware has not disclosed which guest options trigger memory allocation or why the host process fails to bound the resulting consumption. Non-administrative access inside a guest is sufficient, and exhaustion affects availability of the associated host process.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.16%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion allows guest OS users to interrupt the host process through certain guest options. VMware has not disclosed which guest options trigger memory allocation or why the host process fails to bound the resulting consumption. Non-administrative access inside a guest is sufficient, and exhaustion affects availability of the associated host process.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-41227
Published
May 20, 2025
Updated
Jun 24, 2025
Vendor
VMware
Product
VMware Workstation
Classifications
CWE-400, T1499
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. May 20, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Jun 24, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=17.x <17.6.3

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

VMware · VMware Workstationversion=17.x <17.6.3
VMware · VMware Fusionversion=13.x <13.6.3
VMware · VMware Telco Cloud Platformversion=5.x, 4.x, 3.x, 2.x
VMware · VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructureversion=3.x, 2.x
VMware · VMware Cloud Foundationversion=5.x, 4.5.x
VMware · VMware ESXiversion=7.0 <ESXi70U3sv-24723868; version=8.0 <ESXi80U3se-24659227

Published CVSS scores

5.5VMwareCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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