CVE-2025-53717: Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Overview

Severity
High (CVSS 7)
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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-Oct
Released
2025-10-14
EPSS Score
0.04% (percentile: 12.3%)

Description

Reliance on untrusted inputs in a security decision in Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

FAQ

What privileges would an attacker gain by successfully exploiting this vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could potentially leak data from the target enclave or execute code within the context of the target enclave. Are there any additional steps that I need to follow to be protected from this vulnerability? The changes to address this vulnerability updated Virtual Secure Mode components. The policy described in Guidance for blocking rollback of Virtualization-based Security (VBS) related security updates has been updated to account for the latest changes. If you deployed this policy, then you'll need to redeploy using the updated policy. 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 prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability.

Affected Products (8)

Windows

  • Windows 11 Version 25H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 25H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 23H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 24H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems

ESU

  • Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems

Security Updates (2)

Acknowledgments

Microsoft Offensive Research & Security Engineering

Revision History

  • 2025-10-14: Information published.