Microsoft has released a critical security update to address a vulnerability in the Windows Kernel impacting Windows 10 and 11. The issue, tracked as CVE-2025-62215, involves a zero-day exploit allowing potential privilege escalation.
Critical Vulnerability Details
According to Satnam Narang, a senior staff research engineer at Tenable, the vulnerability involves a race condition that attackers actively exploit. The flaw is used for privilege escalation after initial access via phishing or similar methods.
- Entity: Microsoft
- Vulnerability: CVE-2025-62215
- Impact: Privilege escalation
- Product: Windows Kernel (affects Windows 10 and 11)
- Patch Released: 2025-11-12
Mitigation and Impact
This vulnerability affects most systems running Microsoft software. Adam Barnett of Rapid7 notes that, under certain conditions, remote code execution as SYSTEM might occur without prior access.
Ben McCarthy from Immersive explains that an attacker can use a specially crafted application to exploit this flaw. It involves manipulating kernel heap memory, potentially leading to system execution takeover.
Advisory and Action Steps
Microsoft advises all users to update their systems immediately as exploitation has been detected in the wild. The Patch Tuesday release includes fixes for 63 vulnerabilities, with priority given to this zero-day.
Jason Soroko at Sectigo emphasizes that while CVE-2025-62215 requires initial system access, its risk is significant once exploited, urging immediate action.
