Local privilege escalation via administrator-to-guest session hijacking
Published Sep 9, 2025 · Updated Feb 20, 2026
PowerShell Direct session hijacking in Windows and PowerShell 7 allows local users to impersonate a host administrator to a guest VM. The PowerShell Direct channel is not bound to its intended endpoints, allowing another host user to intercept the administrator-to-guest session. Exploitation requires local low-privileged host access and an active session, after which guest-side operations can be manipulated or controlled.
Summary
What happened
PowerShell Direct session hijacking in Windows and PowerShell 7 allows local users to impersonate a host administrator to a guest VM. The PowerShell Direct channel is not bound to its intended endpoints, allowing another host user to intercept the administrator-to-guest session. Exploitation requires local low-privileged host access and an active session, after which guest-side operations can be manipulated or controlled.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-49734
- Published
- Sep 9, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 20, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2019
- Classifications
- CWE-923, T1557
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 9, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 20, 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=10.0.17763.0 <10.0.17763.7792
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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