CVE-2024-22252: Use-after-free vulnerability

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.7 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-03-05 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain a use-after-free vulnerability in the XHCI USB controller. A malicious actor with local administrative privileges on a virtual machine may exploit this issue to execute code as the virtual machine's VMX process running on the host. On ESXi, the exploitation is contained within the VMX sandbox whereas, on Workstation and Fusion, this may lead to code execution on the machine where Workstation or Fusion is installed.

Affected products

VMware ESXi: 7.0-update_1, 7.0-update_1a, 7.0-update_1b, 7.0-update_1c, 7.0-update_1d, 7.0-update_1e (+26); 7.0, 8.0
VMware Fusion: from 13.0.0 before 13.5.1 — fixed in 13.5.1
VMware Workstation: from 17.0.0 before 17.5.1 — fixed in 17.5.1
VMware Cloud Foundation: from 4.0 before 6.0 — fixed in 6.0
VMware ESXi: before esxi80u2sb-23305545; from 8.0 before esxi80u1d-23299997; from 7.0 before esxi70u3p-23307199 — fixed in esxi80u2sb-23305545, esxi80u1d-23299997, esxi70u3p-23307199
VMware Fusion: from 13.0 before 13.5.1 — fixed in 13.5.1
Vmware Workstation: from 17.0 before 17.5.1 — fixed in 17.5.1
VMware Cloud Foundation: 5.x, 4.x
VMware ESXi: from 8.0 before ESXi80U2sb-23305545; from 8.0 before ESXi80U1d-23299997; from 7.0 before ESXi70U3p-23307199 — fixed in ESXi80U2sb-23305545, ESXi80U1d-23299997, ESXi70U3p-23307199
VMware Fusion: from 13.x before 13.5.1 — fixed in 13.5.1
VMware Workstation: from 17.x before 17.5.1 — fixed in 17.5.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: VMware Fusion 13.5.1; VMware Workstation 17.5.1; VMware Cloud Foundation 6.0; VMware ESXi esxi80u2sb-23305545, esxi80u1d-23299997, esxi70u3p-23307199; VMware Fusion 13.5.1; Vmware Workstation 17.5.1; VMware ESXi ESXi80U2sb-23305545, ESXi80U1d-23299997, ESXi70U3p-23307199; VMware Fusion 13.5.1; VMware Workstation 17.5.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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