Local privilege escalation via use-after-free
Published Jul 8, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026
Use-after-free in Windows Media on affected Windows releases allows local users to elevate privileges through crafted media. Windows Media reuses an object after its memory has been freed, but Microsoft has not disclosed the responsible file, function, or object lifetime error. Exploitation requires low-privileged local access and user interaction, and successful exploitation grants higher Windows privileges.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Windows Media on affected Windows releases allows local users to elevate privileges through crafted media. Windows Media reuses an object after its memory has been freed, but Microsoft has not disclosed the responsible file, function, or object lifetime error. Exploitation requires low-privileged local access and user interaction, and successful exploitation grants higher Windows privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-49682
- Published
- Jul 8, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 26, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2025 (Server Core installation)
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 8, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 26, 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=10.0.26100.0 <10.0.26100.4652
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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