PT-2025-42031 · Microsoft · Desktop Windows Manager+1

Published 2025-10-14 · Updated 2026-03-23 · CVE-2025-55681

Positive Technologies · (AI Summary)

CVSS v3.1

7.8

High

AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Name of the Vulnerable Software and Affected Versions Windows versions (affected versions not specified)

Description An out-of-bounds read issue exists in the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) of Windows operating systems. Exploitation of this issue can allow an attacker to elevate privileges locally. The issue involves reading beyond the boundaries of a memory buffer. Exploitation first triggers an out-of-bounds bug to execute shellcode, then MapViewOfFile is hooked to tamper with shared memory and abuse consent.exe, and finally a malicious DLL is loaded to execute cmd. This allows local attackers to escalate privileges to the SYSTEM level.

Recommendations At the moment, there is no information about a newer version that contains a fix for this vulnerability.

LPE

Untrusted Pointer Dereference

Out of bounds Read

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-822

CWE-125

Related Identifiers

BDU:2025-13274

CVE-2025-55681

Affected Products

Windows

Desktop Windows Manager

References · 17

• https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/en-US/advisory/CVE-2025-55681 · Vendor Advisory
• https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-55681 · Vendor Advisory
• https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-55681 · Vendor Advisory
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-55681 · Security Note
• https://bdu.fstec.ru/vul/2025-13274 · Security Note
• http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2025-55681 · Security Note
• https://twitter.com/pixiepointsec/status/1980497208656163230 · Twitter Post
• https://twitter.com/SecuriTeam_SSD/status/2001208485938106774 · Twitter Post
• https://ssd-disclosure.com/desktop-window-manager-array-out-of-bounds-lpe · Reddit Post
• https://twitter.com/threatcluster/status/2011377880966594836 · Twitter Post
• https://twitter.com/CVEnew/status/1978198279482397169 · Twitter Post
• https://t.me/cveNotify/140218 · Telegram Post
• https://reddit.com/r/CVEWatch/comments/1pqii1h/top_10_trending_cves_19122025 · Reddit Post
• https://twitter.com/ZENCRYPT__/status/2001337508848910443 · Twitter Post
• https://twitter.com/0patch/status/2036107099009130618 · Twitter Post