CVE-2025-26683
Published: 31 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-26683 is a high-severity Improper Authorization (CWE-285) vulnerability in Microsoft Azure Playwright. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked in the top 31.0% 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 AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, directly addressing the improper authorization checks that enable network-based privilege escalation in Azure Playwright.
Requires explicit authorization decisions for system resources by defined personnel or roles, mitigating flawed authorization mechanisms allowing unauthorized privilege elevation.
Applies least privilege principle to limit potential impact of privilege escalation exploits over the network with no required initial privileges.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Improper authorization vulnerability enables network-based exploitation for privilege escalation (T1068) in a public-facing Azure service (T1190).
NVD Description
Improper authorization in Azure Playwright allows an unauthorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-26683 is an improper authorization vulnerability (CWE-285) in Azure Playwright that enables privilege escalation. It affects the Azure Playwright component, where flawed authorization checks allow unauthorized access. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (High), reflecting its network-based attack vector (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), no privileges required (PR:N), no user interaction needed (UI:N), unchanged scope (S:U), and high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H).
An unauthorized attacker can exploit this vulnerability over a network by leveraging the improper authorization mechanism to elevate privileges. Exploitation requires high complexity but no prior access or user involvement, potentially granting the attacker full control over affected systems, including unauthorized data access, modification, and disruption.
The Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-26683 provides details on mitigation and patching guidance for this vulnerability.
Details
- CWE(s)