CVE-2025-55240: Visual Studio 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

Unlikely

Patch Tuesday

2025-Oct

Released

2025-10-14

EPSS Score

0.06% (percentile: 18.0%)

Description

Improper access control in Visual Studio allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R) and privileges required is Low (PR:L). What does that mean for this vulnerability? An authenticated attacker could place a malicious file on the path to the project directory and then wait for a user with admin privileges to create a Visual Studio project to gain elevated privileges. What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain administrator 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 17.10
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14

Security Updates (5)

• Release Notes
• Release Notes
• Release Notes
• Release Notes
• Release Notes

Acknowledgments

Polar Penguin, <a href="https://github.com/ycdxsb">ycdxsb</a>

Revision History

• 2025-10-14: Information published.