CVE-2025-26633
Microsoft Windows 10 21H2 ≤ 10.0.19044.5608
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2025-26633 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization (CWE-707) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 21H2. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
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-2025-26633 is an improper neutralization vulnerability in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) that enables an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally. Published on 2025-03-11, the issue is associated with CWE-707 and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.0 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating high potential impact despite requiring local access and user interaction.
An unauthorized attacker with local access to the system can exploit this vulnerability, which demands high attack complexity and user interaction but no special privileges. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to achieve high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, effectively bypassing MMC security controls.
Microsoft's Security Response Center provides an update guide for remediation at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-26633. Vicarius offers a detection script at https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-26633-security-feature-bypass-in-microsoft-management-console-detection-script and a mitigation script at https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/cve-2025-26633-security-feature-bypass-in-microsoft-management-console-mitigation-script.
The vulnerability is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog at https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-26633, indicating real-world exploitation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-6311
Vulnerability Data
Improper neutralization in Microsoft Management Console allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 11 March 2025
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 6 hardening rules · 4 OS baselines
V1.3.9
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing can discover missing or incorrect neutralization logic.
Input validation directly enforces well-formed data and security properties before processing.
Output filtering enforces neutralization properties on data leaving the system.
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 require input/output neutralization and validation to prevent malformed data handling.
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 coding standards directly require proper neutralization of inputs and outputs, eliminating CWE-707.
Security testing can detect neutralization flaws but does not itself implement the required controls.
Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and output encoding that directly prevent improper neutralization.
Application security requirements explicitly call for data validation and sanitization controls addressing neutralization weaknesses.
Secure architecture principles include canonicalization and safe parsing, mitigating but not fully covering neutralization issues.
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 9 (1 rule)
- V-271523 OL 9 must check the GPG signature of locally installed software packages before installation. prevents CWE-707