CVE-2025-21173
Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 17.6.0 – 17.6.22
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-21173 is a high-severity Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions (CWE-379) vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio 2022. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data from Local System (T1005); ranked in the top 33% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-6 (Least Privilege) and SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2025-21173 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability affecting .NET, assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.3 with the vector string AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H and linked to CWE-379.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit the flaw when user interaction occurs, resulting in high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the affected system.
Microsoft has published remediation guidance for the issue in its security update guide at msrc.microsoft.com, with supplementary vulnerability details available from HeroDevs.
The associated EPSS score rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.0733 on 2026-02-03 before receding to the current value of 0.0203, indicating a period of increased exploitation interest after disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-2256
Vulnerability Data
.NET Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
V15.4.2
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
AC-6 reduces the set of actors that can reach an insecurely created temp file by limiting privileges on the containing directory.
SC-4 stops unintended information exposure through shared resources such as world-writable temp directories or files.
AC-3 directly enforces file and directory access authorizations, stopping creation or exposure of temp files under overly permissive ACLs.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices directly prevent developers from writing code that creates temp files in insecure directories.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure system architecture principles include proper file-system permission models that mitigate insecure temp-file creation.
Secure coding standards directly require safe temporary-file creation with restrictive permissions.
Information access restriction policies can limit who may read or list files in shared temporary directories.
Configuration management can enforce secure default permissions on temporary directories.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
- V-248577 OL 8 must enable kernel parameters to enforce Discretionary Access Control (DAC) on symlinks. prevents CWE-379