Local privilege escalation via COM use-after-free
Published Jan 14, 2025 · Updated Jun 9, 2026
Use-after-free in Microsoft COM on affected Windows releases allows local users with low privileges to elevate their access. Microsoft classifies the flaw as a COM use-after-free but has not disclosed the affected object, code path, or lifetime-management error. Exploitation requires prior local low-privileged access and no user interaction; successful exploitation grants higher privileges within the compromised Windows system.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Microsoft COM on affected Windows releases allows local users with low privileges to elevate their access. Microsoft classifies the flaw as a COM use-after-free but has not disclosed the affected object, code path, or lifetime-management error. Exploitation requires prior local low-privileged access and no user interaction; successful exploitation grants higher privileges within the compromised Windows system.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-21281
- Published
- Jan 14, 2025
- Updated
- Jun 9, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows 10 Version 1507
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 14, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 9, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0.10240.0 <10.0.10240.20890
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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