CVE-2025-50158
📋 TL;DR
A time-of-check time-of-use race condition vulnerability in Windows NTFS allows local attackers to read unauthorized files or memory contents. This affects Windows systems with NTFS file systems where an attacker has local access. The vulnerability enables information disclosure through race condition exploitation.
💻 Affected Systems
- Windows
📦 What is this software?
Windows 10 1507 by Microsoft
Windows 10 1507 by Microsoft
Windows 10 1607 by Microsoft
Windows 10 1607 by Microsoft
Windows 10 1809 by Microsoft
Windows 10 1809 by Microsoft
Windows 10 21h2 by Microsoft
Windows 10 22h2 by Microsoft
Windows 11 22h2 by Microsoft
Windows 11 23h2 by Microsoft
Windows 11 24h2 by Microsoft
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attacker gains unauthorized access to sensitive system files, credentials, or memory contents, potentially leading to privilege escalation or lateral movement.
Likely Case
Local attacker reads files they shouldn't have access to, potentially exposing sensitive data or configuration information.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper access controls, monitoring, and isolation of sensitive systems.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires local access and precise timing to win the race condition. No public exploit code available at this time.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Check Microsoft Security Update Guide for specific patch versions
Vendor Advisory: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-50158
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Check Microsoft Security Update Guide for CVE-2025-50158. 2. Apply the latest Windows security updates from Windows Update. 3. Restart the system to complete installation.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict local access
windowsLimit local user access to sensitive systems and implement principle of least privilege
Enable auditing
windowsEnable file system auditing to detect suspicious access patterns
auditpol /set /subcategory:"File System" /success:enable /failure:enable
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict access controls and limit local user privileges
- Monitor for unusual file access patterns and implement network segmentation
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Windows Update history for CVE-2025-50158 patch installation or run 'systeminfo' to check OS version against patched versionsCheck Version:
systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"Verify Fix Applied:
Verify patch installation through Windows Update history or check that system is running a version after the patch release date📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual file access patterns, multiple rapid file operations from same process
- Security event logs showing file access failures followed by successes
Network Indicators:
- Not network exploitable - focus on local system monitoring
SIEM Query:
EventID=4663 AND ObjectType="File" AND AccessMask="0x1" | stats count by ProcessName, ObjectName | where count > threshold