CVE-2025-24080 in Office
Summary
by MITRE • 03/11/2025
Use after free in Microsoft Office allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/02/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-24080 represents a critical use-after-free flaw within Microsoft Office applications that creates a significant attack surface for unauthorized threat actors seeking local code execution privileges. This issue stems from improper memory management practices where freed memory blocks are still being referenced or accessed by subsequent operations within the Office suite. The flaw manifests when specific document processing operations trigger memory deallocation followed by subsequent access patterns that attempt to utilize previously freed memory regions, creating opportunities for malicious code injection and arbitrary code execution.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability aligns with common software security weaknesses categorized under CWE-416, which specifically addresses use-after-free conditions in memory management. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious Office documents that, when opened by vulnerable applications, trigger the problematic memory access patterns. The exploitation process typically involves creating carefully constructed document content that causes Office to free memory associated with specific objects or structures, then subsequently referencing that freed memory during normal document processing operations. This creates a scenario where attackers can manipulate the memory layout to inject and execute malicious code with the privileges of the targeted user.
From an operational perspective, the impact of CVE-2025-24080 extends beyond simple code execution capabilities to encompass broader system compromise potential. The vulnerability's local execution requirement means that successful exploitation typically requires user interaction with malicious documents, making social engineering a critical component of attack strategies. This aligns with ATT&CK technique T1204.002 for "User Execution" and T1059 for "Command and Scripting Interpreter" within the MITRE ATT&CK framework. The threat landscape surrounding such vulnerabilities demonstrates that attackers often leverage this type of flaw to establish persistent access, escalate privileges, or deploy additional malware payloads through the initial code execution vector.
Organizations must implement comprehensive mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability effectively. Microsoft has released security updates that address the memory management issues within Office applications, and immediate patch deployment represents the primary defense mechanism. Additionally, implementing application whitelisting policies, enabling macro security settings, and deploying email filtering solutions can significantly reduce the attack surface for exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of regular security assessments and penetration testing to identify similar memory management flaws within organizational software environments. Network segmentation and privilege separation measures further reduce the potential impact of successful exploitation attempts, while user education programs can help prevent social engineering attacks that leverage this vulnerability. Security monitoring should focus on detecting anomalous Office application behavior, unusual memory access patterns, and unexpected code execution events that may indicate exploitation attempts.