CVE-2025-21297: Windows Remote Desktop Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Overview

Severity

High (CVSS 8.1)

CVSS Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Category

Remote Code Execution

Exploit Status

Not Exploited

Exploitation Likelihood

Less Likely

Patch Tuesday

2025-Jan

Released

2025-01-14

EPSS Score

1.71% (percentile: 82.3%)

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability? Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to win a race condition. How could an attacker exploit this vulnerability? An attacker could successfully exploit this vulnerability by attempting to connect to a system with the Remote Desktop Gateway role, triggering the race condition to create a use-after-free scenario, and then leveraging this to execute arbitrary code.

Affected Products (15)

Windows

• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2025 (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2022, 23H2 Edition (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)

ESU

• Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
• Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation)

Security Updates (9)

• 5050008
• 5049983
• 5050009
• 5049984
• 5049993
• 5050049
• 5050006
• 5050004
• 5050048

Acknowledgments

<a href="https://twitter.com/vv474172261">VictorV(Tang tianwen)</a> with <a href="https://www.cyberkl.com/">Kunlun Lab</a>

Revision History

• 2025-01-14: Information published.