CVE-2025-49797 in Driver Installer
Summary
by MITRE • 06/25/2025
Multiple Brother driver installers for Windows contain a privilege escalation vulnerability. If exploited, an arbitrary program may be executed with the administrative privilege. As for the details of affected product names, model numbers, and versions, refer to the information provided by the respective vendors listed under [References].
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/19/2025
This vulnerability represents a critical privilege escalation flaw within Brother printer driver installers for Windows operating systems. The issue stems from improper handling of installation processes that allow unprivileged users to execute arbitrary code with elevated administrative privileges. Such a flaw fundamentally compromises the security model of Windows systems by enabling attackers to bypass standard user access controls and gain unauthorized administrative access to affected machines.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the installer's failure to properly validate execution contexts and privilege levels during the installation process. When users run the affected Brother driver installers, the installation routine does not adequately verify whether the executing user possesses sufficient privileges or implements proper access controls to prevent unauthorized privilege elevation. This creates an exploitable condition where malicious actors can manipulate the installation process to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges, effectively bypassing Windows security mechanisms designed to prevent such privilege escalation attacks.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to enterprise environments where Brother printers are commonly deployed. Attackers exploiting this flaw could gain administrative control over workstations, potentially leading to full system compromise, data exfiltration, or lateral movement within network perimeters. The vulnerability affects multiple Brother printer models and driver versions, making it particularly dangerous as it could impact a broad range of devices across different organizations. The ease of exploitation through standard driver installation processes means that even non-technical users could inadvertently trigger the vulnerability.
The impact of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-787, which describes out-of-bounds writes and privilege escalation conditions that can result in unauthorized system access. This classification reflects the fundamental nature of the flaw where proper privilege boundaries are violated, allowing unauthorized code execution at elevated privilege levels. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1068, which involves exploiting legitimate credentials and privileges to gain system access, and T1547.001, which covers registry run keys and startup folder modifications that can be used to maintain persistence.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including restricting user privileges during driver installation processes, deploying application whitelisting policies to prevent unauthorized executable code from running, and ensuring all Brother printer drivers are updated to the latest versions provided by the vendor. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring should be implemented to detect suspicious installation activities, and security awareness training should be conducted to educate users about the risks of running untrusted installation packages. Regular vulnerability assessments and patch management processes should be enhanced to proactively identify and remediate similar privilege escalation vulnerabilities across the organization's IT infrastructure.