CVE-2025-54110: Windows 10 1507 Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2025-54110 Overview

CVE-2025-54110 is an integer overflow vulnerability [CWE-190] in the Windows Kernel. An authenticated local attacker can trigger arithmetic wraparound to elevate privileges from a standard user context to SYSTEM. The flaw affects a broad range of Windows client and server versions, from Windows 10 1507 through Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2008 through Windows Server 2025. Microsoft issued a security advisory tracked as CVE-2025-54110 on September 9, 2025. The EPSS score of 3.82% places this vulnerability in the 88th percentile for exploit likelihood.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation grants SYSTEM-level privileges on the local host, providing full control over the operating system and enabling attackers to disable security tooling, install persistent malware, and pivot into higher-value assets.

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

2025-09-09 - CVE-2025-54110 published to NVD with Microsoft advisory release
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-54110

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the Windows Kernel, the privileged core of the operating system that mediates hardware access, memory management, and process scheduling. An integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation produces a value that exceeds the storage capacity of its integer type. When this happens during size or index calculations, the value wraps around to a much smaller number.

Attackers weaponize this behavior to bypass bounds checks and corrupt kernel memory. A successful attack chains the wraparound into an out-of-bounds write or undersized allocation, allowing the attacker to overwrite kernel structures. The attacker requires only low-privilege local access, and no user interaction is needed to trigger the flaw. The scope change indicates that exploitation impacts resources beyond the attacker's initial security context.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient validation on integer arithmetic within a kernel code path. When crafted input causes a size or count value to exceed the maximum representable value, the result wraps to a small integer that then passes subsequent length checks. The vulnerability is classified under [CWE-190] Integer Overflow or Wraparound.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires local access with valid user credentials. The attacker invokes an affected kernel interface, likely through a system call or IOCTL, with parameters chosen to trigger the arithmetic overflow. Once the corrupted size is used in a memory operation, the attacker gains a primitive to modify kernel objects. Attackers typically follow this with token replacement or privilege manipulation to run arbitrary code as SYSTEM. Microsoft has not released public technical details, and no proof-of-concept exploit is currently available.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-54110

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected creation of SYSTEM-level processes originating from a standard user session or interactive logon
Loading of unsigned or newly written drivers, and unexpected calls to NtLoadDriver from non-administrative contexts
Kernel bug checks or crashes referencing memory corruption immediately after execution of untrusted binaries
Process token elevation events where the parent process runs at medium integrity but the child runs at System integrity

Detection Strategies

Monitor Windows Security event ID 4672 (special privileges assigned) and correlate against the initiating user account and parent process lineage
Alert on process integrity level transitions from Medium to System without a corresponding UAC or service control manager event
Baseline and flag anomalous IOCTL patterns and system call sequences from unprivileged user-mode processes
Deploy driver load telemetry and compare against a known-good allowlist of signed kernel modules

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable Sysmon with configuration coverage for process creation (Event ID 1), driver load (Event ID 6), and image load (Event ID 7) events
Forward kernel and security logs to a centralized analytics platform for cross-host correlation
Track binary execution originating from user-writable paths such as %TEMP%, %APPDATA%, and C:\Users\Public
Review privilege escalation activity following the deployment of any unpatched Windows systems

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-54110

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Microsoft security update referenced in the Microsoft CVE-2025-54110 Advisory to all affected Windows client and server systems
Prioritize patching on multi-user systems, terminal servers, and any host where untrusted users can obtain local logon rights
Audit local account membership and remove unnecessary interactive logon rights for standard users
Verify endpoint protection agents are current and their tamper protection features are enabled

Patch Information

Microsoft published the fix through the September 2025 Patch Tuesday cycle. Consult the Microsoft CVE-2025-54110 Advisory for the specific KB article and cumulative update mapped to each Windows build. Deploy the patches through Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), or Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager according to your standard change management process.

Workarounds

No official workaround is published by Microsoft; patching is the required remediation
Restrict local logon rights on servers to trusted administrative personnel until updates are applied
Enforce application allowlisting through Windows Defender Application Control or AppLocker to limit execution of untrusted binaries
Isolate legacy systems that cannot be patched immediately using network segmentation and reduce their exposure to interactive user sessions

bash

# Verify installed updates on a Windows host
Get-HotFix | Sort-Object -Property InstalledOn -Descending | Select-Object -First 20

# Confirm the current OS build to map against the Microsoft advisory
[System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version
(Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion').DisplayVersion