CVE-2025-24983: Windows Win32 Kernel Subsystem use-after-free privilege escalation

Automated analysis

Generated by VULONE's analysis model from the NVD record, CISA KEV and EPSS data on 17 September 2026. Confidence: medium.

high priorityThe flaw is a kernel use-after-free with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact, and CISA lists it as actively exploited, though local access and high attack complexity temper the rating.

What it is

A use-after-free flaw exists in the Windows Win32 Kernel Subsystem. A local attacker with existing credentials can trigger the memory corruption to elevate privileges on the host. Because Win32k is a core kernel component, successful exploitation gives full control of the affected system.

Impact

An attacker who already holds a low-privileged account can escalate to SYSTEM-level privileges on the local machine. That access can be used to disable defenses, install persistence, or move laterally.

Attack surface

The vulnerability is reached locally (AV:L) and requires low privileges (PR:L) with no user interaction (UI:N). No remote or network vector is described in the record.

Exploitation

CVE-2025-24983 is listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog with a remediation due date of 2025-04-01, indicating active exploitation in the wild. EPSS 30-day probability is 0.01348 (70th percentile), and no ransomware campaign use is documented.

What to do

• Apply the Microsoft security update referenced in the MSRC advisory for CVE-2025-24983 as soon as possible.
• Follow CISA BOD 22-01 guidance and meet the 2025-04-01 remediation deadline; discontinue use of affected products if no mitigation is available.
• Restrict local interactive logon and administrative rights to reduce the pool of accounts that can trigger the flaw.
• Monitor for and block known exploitation tooling and suspicious local privilege-escalation behavior on affected Windows hosts.

Detection

• Monitor for unexpected processes gaining SYSTEM or high-integrity tokens from low-privileged parent processes.
• Alert on unusual access to Win32k-related system calls or crashes in win32k.sys that correlate with privilege changes.
• Review Windows security event logs for anomalous token elevation or new service creation shortly after low-privileged logon.
• Track CISA KEV status and vendor advisories for updated exploitation indicators.

This assessment is produced automatically and is not human-reviewed. Verify against the vendor advisory before acting on it.