VulnerabilityPublished 13 Jun 2025

CVE-2025-22238: VMware SALT · Path Traversal

Affects VMware SALTSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.2 Medium : upgrade to 3008.0.0 or 3007.0.0 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.2Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 21% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 3008.0.0, 3007.0.0

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 13 Jun 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade VMware SALT to 3008.0.0 or 3007.0.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
VMware SALT	Affected >=3006.0.0 <3007.0.0 >=3007.0.0 <3008.0.0	Fixed in 3007.0.0 3008.0.0

AI-suggested

Restrict access to VMware SALT master servers to trusted administrators only, minimizing the number of users with high privileges.
Implement strict access controls and monitoring on the filesystem directories used by SALT to detect unauthorized file modifications.
Employ application whitelisting and integrity monitoring tools to alert on unexpected changes to cache or configuration files.
Regularly audit user activities and enforce multi-factor authentication for all administrative access to reduce the risk of credential compromise.
If you cannot patch yet, consider isolating SALT master servers in segmented network zones with limited access to reduce exposure.
Review and harden SALT configuration to limit the scope of file operations and validate inputs where possible.
Stay updated with VMware advisories and apply patches promptly once available.
Conduct internal penetration testing focusing on local privilege escalation vectors to identify potential exploitation paths related to this vulnerability.

Description

Directory traversal attack in minion file cache creation. The master's default cache is vulnerable to a directory traversal attack. Which could be leveraged to write or overwrite 'cache' files outside of the cache directory.

Impact

For European organizations utilizing VMware SALT versions 3006.x or 3007.x, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to system integrity. An attacker with authenticated local access could exploit the directory traversal flaw to overwrite critical cache files or other files on the system, potentially leading to unauthorized code execution or manipulation of system behavior. This could compromise the security of configuration management and automation workflows, which are critical in enterprise environments. Although the vulnerability does not directly impact confidentiality or availability, the integrity compromise could facilitate further attacks, including lateral movement or persistence within the network. Organizations in sectors with stringent compliance requirements, such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure, may face regulatory and operational risks if this vulnerability is exploited. The requirement for high privileges and user interaction limits the attack surface but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments with multiple administrators or where insider threats are a concern.

CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #6OWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.
Implementation · Input Validation
Assume all input is malicious. Use an "accept known good" input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
Architecture and Design
For any security checks that are performed on the client side, ensure that these checks are duplicated on the server side, in order to avoid CWE-602. Attackers can bypass the client-side checks by modifying values after the checks have been performed, or by changing the client to remove the client-side checks…
Implementation · Input Validation
Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174).
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V12.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Path Traversal (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls (opens in a new tab)
Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 13 Jun 2025, 07:20 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-22

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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