CVE-2025-21180
Published: 11 March 2025
Description
An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution.
Security Summary
CVE-2025-21180, published on 2025-03-11, is a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-122) in the Windows exFAT File System. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and affects Windows systems that support the exFAT file system.
An unauthorized attacker with local access can exploit the vulnerability by tricking a user into an action that triggers the buffer overflow, such as interacting with a malicious exFAT-formatted storage device or file. Successful exploitation enables the attacker to execute arbitrary code locally with high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Microsoft's Security Update Guide at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21180 provides details on available patches and mitigation steps.
Details
- CWE(s)
Affected Products
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
Why these techniques?
Heap buffer overflow in kernel-mode exFAT driver enables arbitrary code execution via malicious file/device with user interaction, directly mapping to privilege escalation via OS/kernel exploit (T1068) and user execution of malicious file (T1204.002).