CVE-2025-26647: Windows Kerberos Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Overview

Severity
High (CVSS 8.8)
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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-Apr
Released
2025-04-08
Last Updated
2025-04-10
EPSS Score
2.59% (percentile: 85.6%)

Description

Improper input validation in Windows Kerberos allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network.

FAQ

What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could be assigned much greater rights by the Key Distribution Center to the certificate than intended. How could an attacker exploit this vulnerability? An authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by obtaining a certificate containing the target Subject Key Identifier (SKI) value from a Certificate Authority (CA). The attacker could then use this certificate to get a Ticket Granting Ticket (TGT) for the target user from the Key Distribution Center (KDC).

Affected Products (19)

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 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
  • 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 (11)

Acknowledgments

<a href="https://linkedin.com/in/virot">Oscar Virot</a> with <a href="https://toriv.com/">Toriv AB</a>

Revision History

  • 2025-04-08: Information published.
  • 2025-04-10: Updated FAQ information. This is an informational change only.