CVE-2025-41226: 
vSphere ESXi Hypervisor vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-41226 is a denial-of-service vulnerability discovered in VMware ESXi that was disclosed on May 20, 2025. The vulnerability affects multiple VMware products including VMware ESXi, VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Telco Cloud Platform, and VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure. This security flaw specifically occurs when performing guest operations on systems with VMware Tools running and guest operations enabled (VMware Advisory, NVD).

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.8 (Moderate severity) with the vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H. It is classified as CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) and specifically targets guest operations functionality within VMware ESXi systems (VMware Advisory).

When successfully exploited, this vulnerability can create a denial-of-service condition affecting guest VMs that have VMware Tools running and guest operations enabled. The impact is specifically limited to availability, with no direct effect on confidentiality or integrity of the systems (VMware Advisory).

VMware has released patches to address this vulnerability. For ESXi 8.0, users should apply patch ESXi80U3se-24659227, and for ESXi 7.0, patch ESXi70U3sv-24723868 should be applied. For Cloud Foundation deployments, async patches should be applied according to the version. No workarounds are available for this vulnerability, making patch application the only remediation option (VMware Advisory).

Security researcher Tom Jøran Sønstebyseter Rønning (@L1v1ng0ffTh3L4N) of Statnett (Norway) and Uros Orozel independently reported this vulnerability to VMware, demonstrating the collaborative nature of security research in identifying and addressing such vulnerabilities (VMware Advisory).