All news with #privilege escalation tag

🔒 Microsoft today released Patch Tuesday updates addressing more than 80 vulnerabilities across Windows and related products, including 13 rated critical. There are no known zero‑day or actively exploited flaws in this bundle, but Microsoft patched several high‑risk issues such as CVE-2025-54918 (Windows NTLM), CVE-2025-55234 (SMB client), and CVE-2025-54916 (NTFS). Researchers warn many fixes are for privilege‑escalation bugs — some remotely exploitable — and note that Apple and Google recently patched zero‑days in their platforms as well.

🔔 Microsoft’s September 2025 update addresses 84 vulnerabilities, including two publicly disclosed zero-days and eight Critical issues. CrowdStrike’s analysis identifies elevation of privilege, remote code execution and information disclosure as the top exploitation vectors and notes many critical flaws require some user interaction. Key affected components include Windows, Extended Security Updates (ESU) and Microsoft Office, with notable CVEs in SMB, NTLM, Hyper-V and graphics subsystems. Organizations should prioritize patching, apply mitigations for unpatchable issues, and plan for Windows 10 end of support in October 2025.

⚠️ Microsoft says the August 2025 security updates are causing unexpected User Account Control (UAC) credential prompts and preventing application installations and MSI repair operations for non‑admin users across supported Windows client and server releases. The behavior stems from a patch addressing CVE-2025-50173, a Windows Installer privilege escalation vulnerability that now enforces elevated UAC prompts during MSI repair and related operations. Affected scenarios include MSI repair commands, ConfigMgr deployments relying on per‑user advertising, Secure Desktop enablement, and launching certain Autodesk applications. Microsoft plans a fix allowing admins to exempt specific apps and recommends running affected apps as administrator or applying a Known Issue Rollback via support as a temporary mitigation.

🔒 Google has released its September 2025 Android security updates addressing 120 vulnerabilities, including two issues that Google says have been exploited in limited, targeted attacks. The two highlighted flaws are CVE-2025-38352 (CVSS 7.4), affecting the Linux Kernel, and CVE-2025-48543, impacting the Android Runtime; both can enable local privilege escalation with no user interaction. Google issued patch levels 2025-09-01 and 2025-09-05 to let partners deploy common fixes more quickly and credited Benoît Sevens of TAG with reporting the kernel issue.

🚨 Check Point attributes a BYOVD campaign to the Silver Fox actor that leverages a Microsoft-signed WatchDog kernel driver (amsdk.sys v1.0.600) to neutralize endpoint defenses. The operation uses a dual-driver approach—an older Zemana-based driver on Windows 7 and the WatchDog driver on Windows 10/11—to terminate processes and escalate privileges. An all-in-one loader bundles anti-analysis checks, embedded drivers, AV-killer logic, and a ValleyRAT downloader to establish persistent remote access.

⚠️ GE Vernova's CIMPLICITY HMI/SCADA software is affected by an Uncontrolled Search Path Element vulnerability (CVE-2025-7719) in versions 2024, 2023, 2022, and 11.0. CISA reports this flaw could enable a low-privileged local attacker to escalate privileges; a CVSS v4 score of 7.0 and a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 were calculated. The issue is not remotely exploitable and no public exploitation has been reported; GE Vernova recommends upgrading to CIMPLICITY 2024 SIM 4 and following the Secure Deployment Guide while CISA advises network isolation and secure remote access.

⚠ Schneider Electric disclosed an improper privilege management vulnerability (CVE-2025-8453, CVSS 6.7) affecting Saitel DR and Saitel DP Remote Terminal Units that could allow an authenticated privileged engineer with console access to escalate privileges and potentially execute arbitrary code. Schneider released HUe firmware 11.06.30 for Saitel DR to remediate the issue; a remediation plan for Saitel DP is pending. CISA notes the vulnerability is not remotely exploitable and recommends limiting physical and console access, enforcing root ownership and restrictive permissions on configuration files, and following ICS defensive guidance.

🚨 Microsoft Threat Intelligence says financially motivated group Storm-0501 has refined a brutal hybrid ransomware chain that leverages hijacked privileged accounts to pivot from on‑prem Active Directory into Azure, exploiting visibility gaps to exfiltrate, encrypt, and mass‑delete cloud resources and backups. The actor used Evil‑WinRM for lateral movement and DCSync to harvest credentials, abused a non‑MFA synced global admin to reset passwords, and created a malicious federated domain for broad persistence. After exfiltration they deleted backups where possible, encrypted remaining cloud data, and initiated extortion via a compromised Microsoft Teams account. CISOs are urged to enforce least privilege, audit on‑prem assets, close cloud visibility gaps, and rehearse ransomware playbooks.

🔒 FUJIFILM Healthcare Americas Corporation has released fixes for a privilege-escalation vulnerability (CVE-2025-54551) affecting Synapse Mobility. The issue is an external control of an assumed-immutable web parameter that can be abused remotely with low attack complexity; CVSS v4 score is 5.3. FUJIFILM recommends upgrading to 8.2 or applying patches for 8.0–8.1.1. Immediate mitigations include disabling the configurator search function or unchecking "Allow plain text accession number," and CISA advises minimizing network exposure and using secure remote access.

🔬 Google researchers demonstrated practical improvements to the Retbleed speculative-execution attack, showing that on AMD Zen 2 CPUs attackers can read arbitrary RAM at roughly 13 KB/s with perfect cache-extraction accuracy. They adapted a modified Speculative ROP technique to evade Spectre v2 mitigations and showed ways to bypass Linux kernel defenses. The exploit still requires prior knowledge of kernel configuration, but common default builds and probing reduce that hurdle, and Google has already restricted Zen 2 in certain cloud workloads.

🔒 Siemens has disclosed a Least Privilege Violation in the Wibu CodeMeter runtime that affects the Desigo CC product family and SENTRON Powermanager series. The issue (CVE-2025-47809) can allow local privilege escalation immediately after installation if the CodeMeter Control Center is present and not restarted. A CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 has been assigned. Siemens and WIBU recommend updating to CodeMeter v8.30a and restarting systems; CISA advises network segmentation and minimizing exposure.

🔍 Microsoft Threat Intelligence details PipeMagic, a modular backdoor used by Storm-2460 that masquerades as an open-source ChatGPT Desktop Application. The malware is deployed via an in-memory MSBuild dropper and leverages named pipes and doubly linked lists to stage, self-update, and execute encrypted payload modules delivered from a TCP C2. Analysts observed exploitation of CVE-2025-29824 for privilege escalation followed by ransomware deployment, with victims across IT, finance, and real estate in multiple regions. The report includes selected IoCs, Defender detections, and mitigation guidance to help defenders detect and respond.

⚠️ Rockwell Automation's Micro800 family contains multiple high-severity vulnerabilities (CVSS v4 9.3) that could be exploited remotely to achieve code execution or privilege escalation. Affected models include Micro820, Micro850, and Micro870 series on specified firmware versions; impacts stem from flaws in Azure RTOS NetX Duo and ThreadX and malformed CIP packets. Rockwell and CISA advise updating to V23.011+ where available, applying vendor fixes for CVE-2023-48691/48692/48693 and CVE-2025-7693, minimizing network exposure, and performing risk assessments before deployment.

🛡️ Rockwell Automation's FactoryTalk Viewpoint (version 14.00 and earlier) contains a privilege-escalation vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-7973 that arises from improper handling of MSI repair operations. An attacker who can trigger a repair can hijack the SYSTEM-run cscript.exe console to spawn an elevated command prompt, enabling full privilege escalation; CVSS v4 is 8.5 (low attack complexity). Update to 15.00 or apply vendor-recommended mitigations; the issue is not remotely exploitable and no public exploitation has been reported.

🔒 Microsoft released fixes for more than 100 vulnerabilities in August 2025, including at least 13 rated Critical. Notable flaws include CVE-2025-53786, which lets attackers pivot from compromised on‑premises Exchange Server instances into cloud tenant services, and CVE-2025-53779 (BadSuccessor), a Kerberos dMSA weakness that can yield domain admin rights. Other high‑risk bugs affect GDI+, Word preview and NTLM; several fixes require configuration steps beyond patch installation.

🔒 This deep-dive by Philippe Laulheret (Talos) dissects Dell's ControlVault3 ecosystem, exposing firmware decryption, memory-corruption flaws, and exploit chains that cross the device/host boundary. The researchers recovered hardcoded keys, reverse-engineered the SCD/SMAU update mechanism, and achieved arbitrary code execution in firmware, enabling persistence and a demonstrated Windows Hello bypass. Practical attacks include forging SCD blobs, backdooring firmware to escalate to SYSTEM, and physically extracting the USH board over USB for rapid compromise.

⚠️ CISA issued Emergency Directive 25-02 directing federal civilian agencies to immediately update and secure hybrid Microsoft Exchange environments to address a post-authentication privilege escalation vulnerability. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-53786, could allow an actor with administrative access on an Exchange server to escalate privileges and affect identities and administrative access in connected cloud services. CISA says it is not aware of active exploitation but mandates agencies implement vendor mitigation guidance and will monitor and support compliance. All organizations using hybrid Exchange configurations are urged to adopt the recommended mitigations.

🔒 Unit 42 details BadSuccessor, a critical post-Windows Server 2025 attack vector that abuses delegated Managed Service Accounts (dMSAs) to escalate privileges in Active Directory. The write-up explains how attackers who can create or modify dMSAs may set msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink and msDS-DelegatedMSAState to impersonate superseded accounts and obtain elevated rights. It provides practical detection guidance using Windows Security auditing and offers hunting queries and mitigation recommendations. Palo Alto Networks solutions such as Cortex XDR and XSIAM are highlighted as able to detect this activity when auditing is enabled.

🔒 Talos disclosed five vulnerabilities in Dell ControlVault3 firmware and its Windows APIs, collectively named ReVault. The flaws affect more than 100 Latitude and Precision models and can enable persistent firmware implants that survive OS reinstalls. Attackers with local or physical access may bypass biometric authentication or escalate to Admin/System level. Apply Dell firmware updates and recommended mitigations without delay.