CVE-2021-22043: VMware ESXi

High severity, CVSS 7.5. EPSS: 1.1% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

VMware ESXi contains a TOCTOU (Time-of-check Time-of-use) vulnerability that exists in the way temporary files are handled. A malicious actor with access to settingsd, may exploit this issue to escalate their privileges by writing arbitrary files.

Affected products

• VMware ESXi: version 7.0 only
• VMware Fusion: before 4.4 (fixed in 4.4)

Published 2022-02-16. Last modified 2026-06-17.