CVE-2025-47980 Overview
CVE-2025-47980 is an information disclosure vulnerability in the Windows Imaging Component (WIC). The flaw allows a local, unauthenticated attacker to read sensitive memory content that should not be exposed to unauthorized actors. Microsoft classifies the issue under CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor. The vulnerability affects a broad range of Windows client and server releases, from Windows 10 1507 through Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2008 through Windows Server 2025. Exploitation does not require user interaction or prior privileges, but the attacker must have local access to the target system.
Critical Impact
A local attacker can disclose confidential memory contents processed by the Windows Imaging Component without authentication, potentially exposing data that supports follow-on attacks.
Affected Products
- Microsoft Windows 10 (versions 1507, 1607, 1809, 21H2, 22H2)
- Microsoft Windows 11 (versions 22H2, 23H2, 24H2)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2022 23H2, and 2025
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-07-08 - CVE-2025-47980 published to the National Vulnerability Database
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in the NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-47980
Vulnerability Analysis
The Windows Imaging Component is a COM-based framework that decodes, encodes, and processes image formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and HEIF. WIC is shared across many Windows components, including Explorer, Photos, Print Spooler, and Office. The vulnerability results in the exposure of sensitive information to an unauthorized actor during image handling. A local attacker can craft input that triggers the flawed code path and read data that should remain isolated. The disclosed content may include process memory fragments, cryptographic material, or metadata belonging to another security context.
Because exploitation is local and requires no privileges, the vulnerability is a candidate for staged attack chains. Adversaries often combine information disclosure primitives with a separate elevation-of-privilege or code-execution bug to defeat mitigations such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).
Root Cause
The root cause is improper protection of sensitive data inside a WIC processing routine. According to Microsoft's advisory, the component fails to restrict access to memory or state that should be scoped to a single security boundary. See the Microsoft Security Update CVE-2025-47980 for vendor technical details.
Attack Vector
The attack vector is local. An attacker with the ability to run code or supply crafted image content on the target system can invoke WIC and observe the leaked data. No user interaction is required. Integrity and availability are not affected; only confidentiality is impacted. The vulnerability manifests when WIC parses attacker-controlled image inputs or is invoked by a higher-privileged component that processes such inputs.
No public proof-of-concept exploit is available at this time, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-47980
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected loading of windowscodecs.dll or related WIC modules by non-graphical processes such as scripting hosts, rundll32.exe, or unsigned binaries.
- Anomalous image files (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIF) staged in user-writable directories immediately before suspicious child process activity.
- Repeated crashes or exceptions in processes that consume WIC, which may indicate probing or exploit development.
Detection Strategies
- Monitor Sysmon Event ID 7 for image loads of windowscodecs.dll into unusual host processes and correlate against a known-good baseline.
- Alert on process chains where low-privileged processes trigger image parsing followed by outbound network activity or credential access behavior.
- Deploy behavioral endpoint detection and response (EDR) rules that flag information-disclosure patterns such as reading process memory of higher-integrity processes.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Ingest Windows Security, Sysmon, and EDR telemetry into a centralized analytics platform to correlate local-access precursors with WIC activity.
- Track patch deployment status for the July 2025 Microsoft security updates across all Windows endpoints and servers.
- Establish baselines for WIC-consuming applications so deviations in caller identity or file provenance surface quickly.
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-47980
Immediate Actions Required
- Apply the Microsoft security update referenced in the MSRC advisory for CVE-2025-47980 to all affected Windows client and server systems.
- Prioritize patching multi-user systems, terminal servers, and jump hosts where local access by lower-privileged users is expected.
- Audit local account inventories and remove unnecessary interactive login rights on servers.
Patch Information
Microsoft published the fix through the Windows Update channel and via the Microsoft Security Update Guide entry for CVE-2025-47980. Administrators should validate that the July 2025 cumulative updates are installed on all supported Windows versions listed in the advisory. Legacy systems such as Windows Server 2008 and 2012 require the corresponding Extended Security Update (ESU) package.
Workarounds
- Restrict local logon rights and remove standard-user access from sensitive servers until patching is complete.
- Block untrusted image files at the email gateway and web proxy to reduce the likelihood of malicious inputs reaching WIC.
- Enforce application control policies such as Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to limit which processes can invoke WIC APIs.
# Verify that the CVE-2025-47980 patch is installed on Windows
Get-HotFix | Sort-Object -Property InstalledOn -Descending | Select-Object -First 10
# Confirm the installed Windows build meets the July 2025 update baseline
[System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
