CVE-2025-21206: Visual Studio Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Overview

Severity
High (CVSS 7.3)
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Category
Elevation of Privilege
Exploit Status
Not Exploited
Exploitation Likelihood
Less Likely
Patch Tuesday
2025-Feb
Released
2025-02-11
EPSS Score
0.43% (percentile: 62.8%)

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R). What interaction would the user have to do? Exploitation of this vulnerability requires that a local user executes the Visual Studio installer What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges. According to the CVSS metric, privileges required is low (PR:L). What does that mean for this vulnerability? Any authenticated attacker could trigger this vulnerability. It does not require admin or other elevated privileges.

Affected Products (5)

Developer Tools

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 (includes 15.0 - 15.8)
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11 (includes 16.0 - 16.10)
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 version 17.10
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12

Security Updates (5)

Acknowledgments

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/karanbamal/">Karan Bamal</a> with <a href="http://www.sentinelone.com/">Sentinel One</a>, Stefan Đurašković, <a href="https://medium.com/@spoppi">Sandro Poppi</a>

Revision History

  • 2025-02-11: Information published.