CVE-2025-21358
Microsoft Windows 10 1507 ≤ 10.0.10240.20915
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-21358 is a high-severity Untrusted Pointer Dereference (CWE-822) 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% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — 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-2025-21358 is a Windows Core Messaging Elevation of Privileges Vulnerability, published on 2025-02-11. It affects the Core Messaging component in Windows operating systems and is associated with CWE-822 (Untrusted Pointer Dereference) along with NVD-CWE-noinfo. The vulnerability has 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 with local access.
A local attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability through low-complexity attacks requiring no user interaction (UI:N). Successful exploitation enables high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), allowing the attacker to elevate privileges, potentially gaining full system control within the unchanged security scope (S:U).
Microsoft's Security Response Center provides update guidance and mitigation details for CVE-2025-21358 at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21358.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-2421
Vulnerability Data
Windows Core Messaging Elevation of Privileges Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation can discover instances where untrusted data is turned into a pointer and dereferenced.
Validating all information inputs stops untrusted values from being accepted and converted into dereferenceable pointers.
Memory-protection mechanisms limit the damage from an invalid pointer dereference without stopping the root coding flaw.
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 introduction of untrusted pointer handling during development.
Runtime monitoring of software and data can detect adverse events resulting from exploitation of the weakness.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover instances of this weakness via code review or scanning.
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.
Security testing can detect pointer-dereference flaws before release.
Secure development lifecycle includes pointer-safety practices that reduce untrusted pointer dereference risk.
Application security requirements can mandate validation of pointers obtained from untrusted sources.
Secure architecture principles discourage direct use of untrusted values as pointers.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid dereferencing pointers derived from untrusted input.