CVE-2025-55240CWE-284

Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

High · published October 14, 2025

CVSS v3.1
7.3
EPSS
0%
Percentile
29.4
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

⚡ An authorized user can elevate their privileges in Visual Studio—like a guest who sneaks into the VIP lounge without a wristband! Think of it as a concert where someone finds a hidden passageway to backstage—all because the guards forgot to check a crucial access point. This flaw lets a low-level user operate with the privileges of a high-level user, possibly leading to some serious chaos. This means an attacker could potentially access sensitive data, modify critical settings, or even deploy changes without proper authorization. The risk of tampering with your code or environment is absolutely devastating!

Put simply

Think of it as a concert where someone finds a hidden passageway to backstage—all because the guards forgot to check a crucial access point. This flaw lets a low-level user operate with the privileges of a high-level user, possibly leading to some serious chaos. This vulnerability stems from improper access control in Visual Studio, allowing an authorized attacker to gain higher privileges on the local machine, bypassing the intended security measures.

What to do

This means an attacker could potentially access sensitive data, modify critical settings, or even deploy changes without proper authorization. The risk of tampering with your code or environment is absolutely devastating! To protect your environment, make sure to update Visual Studio to the latest version where this issue is patched. Additionally, review your user roles and permissions to ensure proper access controls are enforced. Don't forget to educate your team about the importance of minimizing access privileges. You've got this! Remediate this issue, and you'll be one step closer to a more secure development environment! 🛡️

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.3 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00367 · 29.4th percentile
Weakness
CWE-284 · Improper Access Control
Published
2025-10-14T17:00Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 14 OCT 17:00Z
    Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
    cvelistv5