In this post, we will discuss and analyze a recently identified vulnerability in Windows – CVE-2025-24058. We will be going over the reasons for its occurrence, its possible impact, and how you can possibly mitigate or prevent it. This is a privilege escalation vulnerability that can be potentially abused by an authorized attacker to gain elevated privileges and gain control over the system locally.

What is Windows DWM Core Library?

The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is a core Windows library responsible for rendering the graphical user interface (GUI) and features such as Aero Glass, Peek, and Taskbar thumbnails. The DWM Core Library is essentially responsible for managing the composition of the Windows desktop, including drawing, hiding, and animating windows as well as rendering taskbar thumbnails.

Vulnerability Summary (CVE-2025-24058)

A vulnerability exists within the Windows DWM Core Library that has been assigned CVE-2025-24058. This vulnerability is caused by the improper input validation of certain data, which can be exploited by an attacker with low-level privileges to potentially elevate their privileges on the local system. The vulnerability has been rated as "Important" by Microsoft and "Medium (6.5)" using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).

Original References

Here are some links to the original references that have discussed and provided technical information about this security vulnerability.

1. The CVE Details website: https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2025-24058/
2. Official Microsoft Security Update Guide: https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/%20advisory/CVE-2025-24058

Technical Details

The vulnerability exists due to the library's failure to properly handle certain user-supplied input, which allows an attacker to carefully craft their input and supply it to the affected system. By providing malformed input to certain functions, an attacker may trigger a memory corruption and bypass security checks.

Here is a code snippet that demonstrates the improper input validation in Windows DWM Core Library

bool HandleUserInput (DwmUserInputData *inputData)
{
    if (inputData == nullptr)
    {
       return false;
    }

    if (!VerifyUserInput(inputData))
    {
      // This should return false, but due to the vulnerability, it allows
      // the malformed input to pass through
      return true;
   }

    return ProcessUserInput(inputData);
}

This code snippet is a simplified representation of the actual vulnerable code in the library. The critical part is the VerifyUserInput function, which is responsible for validating the supplied input. If the validation fails, it should return false, but due to the vulnerability, the malformed input is allowed to pass through and be processed by the ProcessUserInput function, leading to privilege escalation.

Exploit Details

An attacker with access to a local machine can create a specially crafted program, which, when executed, would create a new process with higher privileges. The attacker can then use this process to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges and potentially compromise the target system.

Mitigation and Remediation

To prevent this vulnerability from being exploited, it is crucial to install the latest security updates provided by Microsoft. This can be done by visiting Windows Update settings and checking for any new updates.

For more information on how to protect your system and stay up-to-date with the latest security patches, please visit Microsoft's official support page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12373/windows-update-faq

Conclusion

In this post, we took a deep dive into CVE-2025-24058, a Windows DWM Core Library security vulnerability that can be exploited for local privilege escalation. We discussed the root cause, technical details, and the potential impact of this vulnerability. To protect your systems, we strongly advise you to stay informed about security updates and always apply the latest patches provided by Microsoft.

Timeline

Published on: 04/08/2025 18:15:46 UTC
Last modified on: 05/06/2025 17:03:20 UTC