Critical VMware Fusion CVE-2024-22267 Allows Root Privilege Escalation

Key Takeaways

• A critical privilege escalation vulnerability, CVE-2026-41702, has been discovered in VMware Fusion for macOS.
• The flaw allows local, non-administrative attackers to achieve root-level access on affected systems.
• The vulnerability is a Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition within a SETUID binary.
• VMware Fusion version 25H2 is impacted; users must upgrade to version 26H1 to patch the issue.
• No workarounds are available, making immediate patching essential for all users.

A significant security vulnerability has been identified within VMware Fusion, Broadcom’s popular virtualization software for macOS. This flaw presents a serious risk, enabling local attackers to escalate their privileges to root on compromised systems.

Designated as CVE-2026-41702, this critical issue was privately reported to Broadcom. The vendor subsequently released a patch on May 14, 2026, detailed in their security advisory VMSA-2026-0003.

The core of the vulnerability lies in a Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition. This specific flaw manifests during an operation executed by a SETUID binary within the VMware Fusion environment.

VMware Fusion TOCTOU Vulnerability Explained

TOCTOU vulnerabilities are a class of security flaws that exploit a timing gap. They occur when a program first checks the state or attributes of a resource, then subsequently uses that resource. An attacker can manipulate this brief window between the check and the use to inject malicious changes, effectively hijacking operations that might otherwise require elevated privileges.

Specifically, any user operating VMware Fusion version 25H2 on a macOS system is at risk. Exploitation of this vulnerability requires only local, non-administrative user privileges; no administrator rights or remote access capabilities are necessary for an attacker to leverage this flaw.

This means that an adversary already present on a machine—whether a low-privileged insider or a malicious process running under a standard user account—could exploit this vulnerability to escalate their access to full root privileges. Such an escalation grants complete control over the operating system.

In environments where macOS machines are shared, such as development workstations or enterprise endpoints running Fusion, even a limited initial compromise could quickly expand into a full system takeover due to this vulnerability.

Broadcom has explicitly stated that no workarounds exist for CVE-2026-41702. The only effective remediation is to apply the provided security patch.

Users currently running VMware Fusion 25H2 must upgrade their installations to version 26H1, which includes the necessary fix. Broadcom extended credit to Mathieu Farrell (@coiffeur0x90) for their responsible disclosure of this vulnerability through private reporting channels.

Patching is Imperative

Given the complete lack of alternative mitigating controls, organizations and individual users who depend on VMware Fusion must prioritize this update. The nature of SETUID-related TOCTOU vulnerabilities makes them a well-documented and frequently exploited attack vector for local privilege escalation by threat actors and red teams.

Security teams should conduct immediate audits of all systems running VMware Fusion and ensure that the 26H1 update is deployed across all affected endpoints without any delay.

Without any available workaround, postponing this patch leaves a direct path open for root privilege escalation on every unpatched macOS host.

What You Should Do

• Immediately identify all macOS systems running VMware Fusion version 25H2.
• Upgrade all identified instances of VMware Fusion to version 26H1 without delay.
• Verify that the update has been successfully applied across all endpoints.
• Regularly monitor Broadcom’s security advisories for future updates and critical patches.

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