CVE-2025-53740
Published: 12 August 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-53740 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel. Its CVSS base score is 8.4 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked in the top 36.9% 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 RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning) and SI-16 (Memory Protection).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
SI-2 mandates timely patching of known flaws like the use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Office to prevent local code execution.
SI-16 enforces memory protections such as ASLR and DEP to block arbitrary code execution resulting from use-after-free errors in Microsoft Office.
RA-5 requires vulnerability scanning to identify systems affected by CVE-2025-53740 in Microsoft Office for subsequent remediation.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Use-after-free in Microsoft Office directly enables client-side arbitrary code execution (T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution) with local access and no user interaction required.
NVD Description
Use after free in Microsoft Office allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-53740 is a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) affecting Microsoft Office. Published on 2025-08-12T18:15:44.400, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.4 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The issue enables an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally by exploiting memory management flaws in the software.
An unauthorized attacker with local access to the target system can exploit this vulnerability. Exploitation requires low complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction. Successful attacks allow arbitrary code execution, resulting in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Microsoft's advisory provides details on mitigation and patches. Security practitioners should consult the Microsoft Security Response Center update guide at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-53740 for remediation steps.
Details
- CWE(s)