Local privilege escalation via use-after-free
Published Oct 14, 2025 · Updated Oct 14, 2025
Use-after-free in Windows PrintWorkflowUserSvc allows local users with low privileges to elevate privileges on affected Windows systems. The service accesses an object after its storage is freed, but Microsoft has not disclosed the responsible function, object lifetime, or triggering input. Successful exploitation requires local low-privilege access and a high-complexity state condition, with no user interaction.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Windows PrintWorkflowUserSvc allows local users with low privileges to elevate privileges on affected Windows systems. The service accesses an object after its storage is freed, but Microsoft has not disclosed the responsible function, object lifetime, or triggering input. Successful exploitation requires local low-privilege access and a high-complexity state condition, with no user interaction.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-55686
- Published
- Oct 14, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 14, 2025
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2025 (Server Core installation)
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 14, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 14, 2025Record 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 <10.0.26100.6899
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.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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