CVE-2025-41238 PVSCSI heap-overflow vulnerability
A local attacker with admin privileges in a VM can exploit a heap overflow in the PVSCSI controller to execute code on the host, particularly in Workstation and Fusion.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-41238?
CVE-2025-41238 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in VMware Cloud Foundation, published on 15 Jul 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
VMware ESXi, Workstation, and Fusion contain a heap-overflow vulnerability in the PVSCSI (Paravirtualized SCSI) controller that leads to an out of-bounds write. 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 and exploitable only with configurations that are unsupported. On Workstation and Fusion, this may lead to code execution on the machine where Workstation or Fusion is installed.
Weakness: CWE-787
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-41238?
How do I fix CVE-2025-41238?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-41238 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2025-41238 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-41238 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-x6g2-w5w8-r8xx.