Local privilege escalation via use-after-free
Published Jan 14, 2025 · Updated Jun 9, 2026
Use-after-free in Microsoft DWM Core Library allows local users with low privileges to elevate privileges on affected Windows releases. Microsoft has not published the specific object, code path, or stale-reference operation responsible for the memory-lifetime error. Successful exploitation grants higher privileges and can expose, alter, or interrupt resources available to the elevated context.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Microsoft DWM Core Library allows local users with low privileges to elevate privileges on affected Windows releases. Microsoft has not published the specific object, code path, or stale-reference operation responsible for the memory-lifetime error. Successful exploitation grants higher privileges and can expose, alter, or interrupt resources available to the elevated context.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-21304
- Published
- Jan 14, 2025
- Updated
- Jun 9, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2019
- 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
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0.17763.0 <10.0.17763.6775
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
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo