CVE-2025-24081
Published: 11 March 2025
Description
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
Security Summary
CVE-2025-24081 is a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) in Microsoft Office Excel. Published on 2025-03-11, 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). The flaw enables an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally by exploiting memory corruption in Excel's handling of objects after they have been freed.
An attacker with local access to the target system, requiring no privileges (PR:N), can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity (AC:L) but needs user interaction (UI:R), such as convincing a user to open a malicious Excel file. Successful exploitation leads to arbitrary code execution in the context of the Excel process, granting high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H).
Microsoft's Security Response Center provides an update guide for mitigation at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-24081, detailing patches and recommended actions for affected systems.
Details
- CWE(s)
Affected Products
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
Why these techniques?
The use-after-free memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Excel directly enables arbitrary code execution upon opening a malicious file, mapping to Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203) as it targets a client application (office suite).