CVE-2025-21281
Published: 14 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-21281 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 1507. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 48.9% 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 SI-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly requires timely identification, reporting, and remediation of flaws such as this use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft COM to prevent exploitation.
Implements memory protection mechanisms like address space layout randomization and data execution prevention that directly mitigate use-after-free vulnerabilities.
Enforces least privilege to restrict low-privileged local attackers from gaining elevated access via exploitation of this COM elevation of privilege vulnerability.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Direct local EoP via use-after-free in Microsoft COM enables exploitation for privilege escalation (T1068).
NVD Description
Microsoft COM for Windows Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-21281 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft COM for Windows, classified under CWE-416 (use-after-free) with an NVD-CWE-noinfo designation. Published on 2025-01-14, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high severity due to its potential for significant impact on affected systems.
The vulnerability can be exploited by a local attacker who already possesses low privileges on the target Windows system. Exploitation requires low complexity and no user interaction, allowing the attacker to elevate privileges and achieve high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts within the unchanged scope.
Microsoft's update guide at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21281 provides details on available patches and recommended mitigations for addressing this vulnerability.
Details
- CWE(s)