Over 37,000 VMware ESXi servers vulnerable to ongoing attacks

The Shadowserver Foundation reports that most of the vulnerable instances are in China (4,400), followed by France (4,100), the United States (3,800), Germany (2,800), Iran (2,800), and Brazil (2,200). Bill Toulas Bill Toulas is a tech writer and infosec news reporter with over a decade of experience working on various online publications, covering open-source, Linux, malware, data breach incidents, and hacks. Broadcom warned customers about it along with two other flaws, CVE-2025-22225 and CVE-2025-22226, on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, informing that all three were being exploited in attacks as zero-days. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has given federal agencies and state organizations until March 25, 2025, to apply the available updates and mitigations or stop using the product. Over 37,000 internet-exposed VMware ESXi instances are vulnerable to CVE-2025-22224, a critical out-of-bounds write flaw that is actively exploited in the wild. CVE-2025-22224 is a critical-severity VCMI heap overflow vulnerability that enables local attackers with administrative privileges on the VM guest to escape the sandbox and execute code on the host as the VMX process. However, due to the widespread use of VMware ESXi, a popular hypervisor used for virtualization in enterprise IT environments for virtual machine management, the impact is global. This massive exposure is being reported by threat monitoring platform The Shadowserver Foundation, which reported a figure of around 41,500 yesterday. For more information on the ESXi versions that fix CVE-2025-22224, users are recommended to check Broadcom’s bulletin. The flaws were discovered by Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center, which observed their exploitation as zero days for an undisclosed period.

This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Thu, 06 Mar 2025 15:40:22 +0000


Cyber News related to Over 37,000 VMware ESXi servers vulnerable to ongoing attacks

Investigation of Possible Causes of ESXiArgs Ransomware Attacks Suggests VMware is Not at Fault - Edward Hawkins, the High-Profile Product Incident Response Manager at VMware, has denied allegations that two-year-old security flaws have been used in the current ESXiArgs ransomware attacks. Over the weekend, reports surfaced about cybercriminals ...
2 years ago Hackread.com CVE-2021-21974
Linux version of Qilin ransomware focuses on VMware ESXi - A sample of the Qilin ransomware gang's VMware ESXi encryptor has been found and it could be one of the most advanced and customizable Linux encryptors seen to date. Due to this adoption, almost all ransomware gangs have created dedicated VMware ESXi ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com Qilin
No Signs of Unpatched Vulnerabilities Discovered in ESXiArgs Ransomware Attacks - VMware reported on Monday that there is no proof that hackers are using an unknown security flaw, also known as a zero-day, in its software as part of a ransomware attack. Most reports suggest that outdated products with known vulnerabilities that ...
2 years ago Thehackernews.com CVE-2021-21974
9 Best DDoS Protection Service Providers for 2024 - eSecurity Planet content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More. One of the most powerful defenses an organization can employ against distributed ...
1 year ago Esecurityplanet.com
VMware fixes critical Cloud Director auth bypass unpatched for 2 weeks - VMware has fixed a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Cloud Director appliance deployments, a bug that was left unpatched for over two weeks since it was disclosed on November 14th. Cloud Director is a VMware platform that enables admins ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2023-34060
41,500+ VMware ESXi Instances Vulnerable to Code Execution Attacks - We are scanning & reporting out VMware ESXi CVE-2025-22224 vulnerable instances ("a malicious actor with local admin privileges on a virtual machine may exploit this to execute code as virtual machine's VMX process running on ...
1 month ago Cybersecuritynews.com CVE-2025-22224
VMware fixes critical code execution flaw in vCenter Server - VMware issued security updates to fix a critical vCenter Server vulnerability that can be exploited to gain remote code execution attacks on vulnerable servers. vCenter Server is the central management hub for VMware's vSphere suite, and it helps ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2023-34048 CVE-2023-34056
Latest Information Security and Hacking Incidents - The ransomware strain Qilin has surfaced as a new danger to computers using VMware ESXi, which is a recent development in the cryptocurrency space. Concerned observers have expressed concern over the fact that this Qilin Linux version exhibits a ...
1 year ago Cysecurity.news Qilin
VMWare discloses critical VCD Appliance auth bypass with no patch - VMware disclosed a critical and unpatched authentication bypass vulnerability affecting Cloud Director appliance deployments. Cloud Director enables VMware admins to manage their organizations' cloud services as part of Virtual Data Centers. The auth ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2023-34060
A largescale ransomware attack is targeting VMware ESXi servers around the world - Administrators, hosting providers, and the French Computer Emergency Response Team have warned that attackers are actively targeting VMware ESXi servers that have not been patched against a two-year-old remote code execution vulnerability to deploy ...
2 years ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2021-21974
VMware urges admins to remove deprecated, vulnerable auth plug-in - VMware urged admins today to remove a discontinued authentication plugin exposed to authentication relay and session hijack attacks in Windows domain environments via two security vulnerabilities left unpatched. The vulnerable VMware Enhanced ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2024-22245 CVE-2024-22250
Broadcom warns of authentication bypass in VMware Windows Tools - For instance, in November, Broadcom warned that attackers were exploiting two VMware vCenter Server vulnerabilities: a privilege escalation to root (CVE-2024-38813) and a critical remote code execution flaw (CVE-2024-38812) identified during China's ...
1 week ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2024-38813
VMware ESXi Vulnerabilities Exploited in Wild to Execute Malicious Code - This critical flaw in VMware’s VMCI (Virtual Machine Communication Interface) allows attackers with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine to execute code on the underlying host. VMware has issued a critical security advisory ...
1 month ago Cybersecuritynews.com Black Basta CVE-2024-37085 Akira
Ransomware Attack Exploiting an Outdated Vulnerability on Numerous VMware ESXi Servers - Recently, a large-scale ransomware attack has been targeting unpatched and unprotected VMware ESXi servers around the world. The attack, known as ESXiArgs, is exploiting a vulnerability called CVE-2021-21974, which was patched by VMware in February ...
2 years ago Securityweek.com CVE-2021-21974
Over 37,000 VMware ESXi servers vulnerable to ongoing attacks - The Shadowserver Foundation reports that most of the vulnerable instances are in China (4,400), followed by France (4,100), the United States (3,800), Germany (2,800), Iran (2,800), and Brazil (2,200). Bill Toulas Bill Toulas is a tech writer and ...
1 month ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2025-22225
Russians break into Microsoft as Chinese hit VMware users The Register - A VMware security vulnerability has been exploited by Chinese cyberspies since late 2021, according to Mandiant, in what has been a busy week for nation-state espionage news. On Friday VMware confirmed CVE-2023-34048, a critical out-of-bounds write ...
1 year ago Go.theregister.com CVE-2023-34048 Hunters
Chinese threat group exploited VMware vulnerability in 2021 - A critical VMware vulnerability that was patched in October was exploited in the wild two years ago by a China-nexus threat actor, according to new research from Mandiant. On Oct. 25, VMware first disclosed an out-of-bounds write vulnerability ...
1 year ago Techtarget.com CVE-2023-34048 CVE-2023-34056 CVE-2023-20867
RansomHouse gang automates VMware ESXi attacks with new MrAgent tool - The RansomHouse ransomware operation has created a new tool named 'MrAgent' that automates the deployment of its data encrypter across multiple VMware ESXi hypervisors. RansomHouse is a ransomware-as-a-service operation that emerged in December 2021 ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com LockBit
Chinese Espionage Group Has Exploited VMware Flaw Since 2021 - A Chinese espionage group spotted last year by Mandiant researchers abusing a flaw that affected VMware virtualization tools has been exploiting another zero-day vulnerability in VMware's vCenter Server since at least late 2021, according to the ...
1 year ago Securityboulevard.com CVE-2023-34048 CVE-2023-20867
Chinese Spies Exploited Critical VMware Bug for Nearly 2 Years - One of the most serious VMware vulnerabilities in recent memory was secretly being exploited by a Chinese advanced persistent threat for years before a patch became available. In a sign of just how severe this particular issue was, VMware went so far ...
1 year ago Darkreading.com CVE-2023-34048 CVE-2023-20867
A type of malicious software called Royal Ransomware designed for Linux systems is attacking VMware ESXi servers - The latest ransomware operation to target Linux devices is Royal Ransomware. It is specifically designed to encrypt VMware ESXi virtual machines. Other ransomware gangs, such as Black Basta, LockBit, BlackMatter, AvosLocker, REvil, HelloKitty, ...
2 years ago Bleepingcomputer.com LockBit RansomEXX Black Basta
VMware Tools for Windows Vulnerability Let Attackers Bypass Authentication - According to the security advisory VMSA-2025-0005, the authentication bypass vulnerability stems from improper access control in the VMware Tools for Windows utilities suite. In response to this vulnerability, cybersecurity experts recommend that ...
1 week ago Cybersecuritynews.com CVE-2025-22230
VMware warns admins of public exploit for vRealize RCE flaw - VMware warned customers on Monday that proof-of-concept exploit code is now available for an authentication bypass flaw in vRealize Log Insight. "Updated VMSA to note that VMware has confirmed that exploit code for CVE-2023-34051 has been published," ...
1 year ago Bleepingcomputer.com CVE-2023-34051
Threat Actor Allegedly Selling VMware ESXi 0-Day Exploit on Hacker Forum - If authentic, this exploit could allow attackers to breach the host system from a guest virtual machine (VM), posing a critical threat to virtualized environments. Exploit enables attackers to escape the isolation provided by the hypervisor, ...
1 month ago Cybersecuritynews.com
CVE-2018-6981 - VMware ESXi 6.7 without ESXi670-201811401-BG and VMware ESXi 6.5 without ESXi650-201811301-BG, VMware ESXi 6.0 without ESXi600-201811401-BG, VMware Workstation 15, VMware Workstation 14.1.3 or below, VMware Fusion 11, VMware Fusion 10.1.3 or below ...
3 years ago

Latest Cyber News


Cyber Trends (last 7 days)


Trending Cyber News (last 7 days)