CVE-2025-21251
Published: 14 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-21251 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 1507. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked in the top 19.7% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SC-7 (Boundary Protection).
Deeper analysis
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) contains a denial-of-service vulnerability, CVE-2025-21251, that results from uncontrolled resource consumption. The flaw carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 and affects the availability of the MSMQ service when reached over the network.
An unauthenticated attacker with network access can trigger the condition remotely without user interaction or credentials, leading to high-impact loss of service availability. The low attack complexity increases the reach of the issue to any exposed MSMQ endpoint.
Microsoft’s advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21251 supplies patch information and mitigation guidance. The associated EPSS score rose from a low baseline to a recorded peak of 0.0332, indicating that exploitation interest emerged after public disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-2317
Vulnerability details
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) Denial of Service Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE describes remote unauthenticated exploitation of MSMQ leading to availability impact via resource exhaustion or crash, directly matching application/system exploitation for endpoint DoS.
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly remediates the specific MSMQ flaw enabling unauthenticated remote denial-of-service exploitation by applying vendor patches.
Implements denial-of-service protections at network boundaries to block or mitigate resource exhaustion attacks on MSMQ.
Enforces boundary protection to restrict unauthenticated network access to MSMQ ports and services, preventing remote exploitation.