Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-4525

LPE in Discord 1.0.9188

Public PoCLPE
Published
10 May 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
CVSS Score v4 7.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0031 24th percentile
Risk Priority 26 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-4525 is a high-severity Untrusted Search Path (CWE-426) vulnerability in Discord Discord. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 24th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A08:2025 Software or Data Integrity Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Discord 1.0.9188 on Windows. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality in the library WINSTA.dll. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled search path. The attack needs to be approached…

more

locally. The complexity of an attack is rather high. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The vendor was contacted early about this disclosure but did not respond in any way.

CWE(s)
CWE-426CWE-427

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574 Hijack Execution Flow Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the way operating systems run programs.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.001 DLL Stealth
Adversaries may abuse dynamic-link library files (DLLs) in order to achieve persistence, escalate privileges, and evade defenses.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.007 Path Interception by PATH Environment Variable Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking environment variables used to load libraries.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.008 Path Interception by Search Order Hijacking Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the search order used to load other programs.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.004 Dylib Hijacking Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own payloads by placing a malicious dynamic library (dylib) with an expected name in a path a victim application searches at runtime.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-3787Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2024-27303Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2025-5180Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2025-33231Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2023-48861Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2025-15558Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2023-31027Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2023-47113Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2023-48677Same product: Microsoft Windows
CVE-2023-31016Same product: Microsoft Windows

Affected Assets

discord
discord
1.0.9188

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 2 hardening rules · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

CM-6 Configuration Settings good match

Secure baseline settings can enforce absolute, organization-controlled paths for critical resources.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Enforces approved authorizations so that only intended actors can place or modify elements in the search path.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Limits privileges so unintended actors cannot write to or control directories in the product's search path.

CM-5 Access Restrictions for Change partial match

Restricts logical and physical access to change system configuration, including search-path settings and directories.

CM-7 Least Functionality partial match

Least-functionality configuration can prohibit unapproved directories or executables from being reachable via search paths.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

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.

PR.PS-05 full match
prevents

Preventing execution of unauthorized code directly blocks the malicious binaries that an untrusted search path would load.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices include avoiding or sanitizing externally influenced search paths in application code.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can discover search-path issues but does not itself prevent them in production code.

A.8.19 Installation of software on operational systems partial match
degrades

Restricting software installation reduces the chance that untrusted binaries or libraries are placed in search paths.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles include hard-coded or validated search paths and avoiding reliance on untrusted directories.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards require absolute paths or integrity-checked search paths, directly mitigating CWE-426.

A.8.9 Configuration management partial match
prevents

Configuration management can enforce approved search-path settings but does not inherently prevent the weakness.

A.8.32 Change management none match
none

Change-management processes can enforce review of path-handling changes, indirectly lowering risk.

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 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248577 OL 8 must enable kernel parameters to enforce Discretionary Access Control (DAC) on symlinks. prevents CWE-427

References