CVE-2025-62219: Windows 10 1607 Privilege Escalation Flaw

CVE-2025-62219 Overview

CVE-2025-62219 is a double free vulnerability in the Microsoft Wireless Provisioning System. An authorized local attacker can exploit the flaw to elevate privileges on affected Windows systems. The vulnerability is tracked under [CWE-415] (Double Free) and [CWE-362] (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization), indicating a race condition triggers the memory corruption.

Microsoft published the advisory on November 11, 2025. Successful exploitation impacts confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the target host. No public proof-of-concept code or in-the-wild exploitation has been reported at the time of publication.

Critical Impact
A local authenticated attacker who wins a timing race against the Wireless Provisioning System can free the same memory region twice, corrupt kernel-adjacent heap structures, and escalate to SYSTEM-level privileges on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Affected Products

Microsoft Windows 10 (versions 1607, 1809, 21H2, 22H2)
Microsoft Windows 11 (versions 23H2, 24H2, 25H2)
Both x86 and x64 architectures where applicable

Discovery Timeline

2025-11-11 - CVE-2025-62219 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-62219

Vulnerability Analysis

The Microsoft Wireless Provisioning System (WPS) manages configuration and provisioning of wireless network profiles on Windows endpoints. The service handles user-supplied provisioning data and reference-counted objects representing network profiles and credentials. Under specific concurrent execution conditions, WPS releases the same heap allocation twice.

The double free arises from missing synchronization between code paths that dispose of the same object. When two threads observe a shared pointer as valid, both invoke the destructor, and HeapFree is called on the same address in succession. The second free corrupts heap metadata and allocator freelist chains.

An attacker with local, low-privileged access can shape the heap to place a controllable structure at the reused address. Reallocating the freed slot with attacker-controlled data allows overwriting a function pointer or object vtable dispatched by a privileged component. Exploitation requires precise timing, reflected in the high attack complexity metric.

Root Cause

The root cause combines two weaknesses. [CWE-362] describes the race condition where two execution contexts operate on the same resource without adequate locking. [CWE-415] describes the resulting double free on the shared heap allocation. Reference counting or ownership transfer logic in the affected WPS component fails to atomically nullify the pointer after the first release.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires local access with low privileges. The attacker triggers concurrent operations against the Wireless Provisioning System, typically through provisioning APIs or IPC endpoints exposed to standard users. Winning the race window produces the double free, and subsequent heap grooming converts the memory corruption into arbitrary code execution in the privileged service context.

No user interaction is required beyond the attacker's own actions. The vulnerability is not remotely reachable and is not present on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Microsoft has not documented public exploit code. Technical details are described in prose because no verified proof-of-concept exists. See the Microsoft CVE-2025-62219 Advisory for vendor guidance.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-62219

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected crashes or Watson error reports referencing the Wireless Provisioning System service (wcmsvc, WlanSvc) with heap corruption exception codes such as STATUS_HEAP_CORRUPTION (0xC0000374).
Creation of new administrative accounts or scheduled tasks by processes that inherit tokens from wireless provisioning components.
Anomalous child processes spawned by services associated with wireless configuration, particularly cmd.exe, powershell.exe, or rundll32.exe.

Detection Strategies

Monitor Windows Error Reporting and crash telemetry for repeated faults in wireless provisioning binaries, which often indicate failed exploitation attempts against race-condition bugs.
Correlate rapid, repeated calls to wireless configuration APIs from a single low-privileged user context, a common precursor to winning the race window.
Enable behavioral endpoint detection to flag privilege token elevation events not preceded by legitimate RunAs or UAC prompts.

Monitoring Recommendations

Ingest Windows Security, System, and Application event logs into a centralized analytics platform to correlate crash telemetry with user session activity.
Track Sysmon Event ID 1 (process creation) and Event ID 10 (process access) targeting wireless service processes for signs of injection or exploitation.
Baseline normal wireless profile provisioning frequency per host to surface bursts of API calls indicative of race exploitation.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-62219

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Microsoft November 2025 security updates to all Windows 10 and Windows 11 hosts as documented in the Microsoft CVE-2025-62219 Advisory.
Prioritize patching multi-user systems, jump hosts, and shared workstations where local users could stage the required race conditions.
Audit local user and service account inventories to remove unnecessary interactive logon rights on sensitive endpoints.

Patch Information

Microsoft released fixes as part of the November 2025 Patch Tuesday cycle. The update addresses the synchronization defect in the Wireless Provisioning System component across all supported Windows 10 and Windows 11 branches. Administrators should validate deployment through Windows Update for Business, WSUS, or Microsoft Intune reporting and confirm reboot completion on managed endpoints.

Workarounds

Where wireless connectivity is not required, disable the Wireless Provisioning Service and WLAN AutoConfig service (WlanSvc) via Group Policy or sc config to remove the attack surface.
Restrict local logon on servers and infrastructure hosts that do not require interactive user sessions, reducing the pool of principals able to trigger the race.
Apply attack surface reduction rules and application control policies to block untrusted binaries from executing on endpoints pending patch deployment.

bash

# Disable WLAN AutoConfig on hosts that do not require wireless (run as Administrator)
sc config WlanSvc start= disabled
sc stop WlanSvc

# Verify November 2025 cumulative update installation
wmic qfe list brief /format:table | findstr /I "2025"