Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-24789 is a high-severity Untrusted Search Path (CWE-426) vulnerability in Snowflake Snowflake Jdbc. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 17th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and CM-7 (Least Functionality) — 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-2025-24789 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Snowflake JDBC Driver, a type 4 driver enabling Java programs to connect to Snowflake data warehouses. The issue arises when the EXTERNALBROWSER authentication method is used on Windows systems, allowing an attacker with write access to a directory in the system's %PATH% environment variable to execute arbitrary code as the user running the vulnerable driver. This untrusted search path flaw, classified under CWE-426, affects versions 3.2.3 through 3.21.0 exclusively on Windows platforms, with 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).
A local attacker requires low privileges (PR:L) and write access to any directory listed in the %PATH% to exploit this vulnerability. By placing a malicious executable in that path, the attacker can hijack the driver's execution flow during authentication, leading to full compromise of the affected user's context, including high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts.
Snowflake remediated the vulnerability in version 3.22.0 of the JDBC Driver. Security practitioners should immediately upgrade to this patched version. Additional details are available in the GitHub security advisory (GHSA-7hpq-3g6w-pvhf) and the fixing commit (4f01bb8f9b708c71e7a2111c87371dbfc1d53dd6).
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-0144
Vulnerability Data
Snowflake JDBC provides a JDBC type 4 driver that supports core functionality, allowing Java program to connect to Snowflake. Snowflake discovered and remediated a vulnerability in the Snowflake JDBC Driver. When the EXTERNALBROWSER authentication method is used on Windows, an…
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attacker with write access to a directory in the %PATH% can escalate their privileges to the user that runs the vulnerable JDBC Driver version. This vulnerability affects versions 3.2.3 through 3.21.0 on Windows. Snowflake fixed the issue in version 3.22.0.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Secure baseline settings can enforce absolute, organization-controlled paths for critical resources.
Least-functionality configuration can prohibit unapproved directories or executables from being reachable via search paths.
Engineering principles such as trusted paths, complete mediation, and least privilege directly require hard-coded or validated search paths instead of external ones.
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.
Preventing execution of unauthorized code directly blocks the malicious binaries that an untrusted search path would load.
Secure development practices include avoiding or sanitizing externally influenced search paths in application code.
Hardened configuration baselines can enforce safe search paths and restrict environment variables that enable the weakness.
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 discover search-path issues but does not itself prevent them in production code.
Restricting software installation reduces the chance that untrusted binaries or libraries are placed in search paths.
Secure architecture principles include hard-coded or validated search paths and avoiding reliance on untrusted directories.
Secure coding standards require absolute paths or integrity-checked search paths, directly mitigating CWE-426.
Change-management processes can enforce review of path-handling changes, indirectly lowering risk.