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How Cloud Security Buyers Balance Functionality, Cost, Features and Innovation
The debate between pure-play cloud security solutions and integrated platforms intensifies as the market consolidates. While pure-play vendors such as Wiz offer innovation and deep functionality, platforms such as Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike provide cost-effective and comprehensive options.

Malware Used a Hardcoded IP Address for Command and Control
U.S. federal law enforcement said Tuesday it deleted more than 4,000 instances of PlugX malware used in a Chinese cyberespionage operation after a European partner gained control of the malware's command and control server. PlugX spreads through infected USB drives.

1. 10Critical
2. 147Important
3. 0Moderate
4. 0Low

Microsoft addresses 157 CVEs in the first Patch Tuesday release of 2025 and the largest Patch Tuesday update ever with three CVEs exploited in the wild, and five CVEs publicly disclosed prior to patches being made available.

Microsoft patched 157 CVEs in its January 2025 Patch Tuesday release, with 10 rated critical and 147 rated as important. Our counts omitted two vulnerabilities, one reported by GitHub and another reported by CERT/CC. To date, the January 2025 Patch Tuesday release is the largest ever from Microsoft.

This month’s update includes patches for:

• .NET
• .NET and Visual Studio
• .NET,.NET Framework, Visual Studio
• Active Directory Domain Services
• Active Directory Federation Services
• Azure Marketplace SaaS Resources
• BranchCache
• IP Helper
• Internet Explorer
• Line Printer Daemon Service (LPD)
• Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU)
• Microsoft Azure Gateway Manager
• Microsoft Brokering File System
• Microsoft Digest Authentication
• Microsoft Graphics Component
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Office Access
• Microsoft Office Excel
• Microsoft Office OneNote
• Microsoft Office Outlook
• Microsoft Office Outlook for Mac
• Microsoft Office SharePoint
• Microsoft Office Visio
• Microsoft Office Word
• Microsoft Purview
• Microsoft Windows Search Component
• Power Automate
• Reliable Multicast Transport Driver (RMCAST)
• Visual Studio
• Windows BitLocker
• Windows Boot Loader
• Windows Boot Manager
• Windows COM
• Windows Client-Side Caching (CSC) Service
• Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver
• Windows Connected Devices Platform Service
• Windows Cryptographic Services
• Windows DWM Core Library
• Windows Digital Media
• Windows Direct Show
• Windows Event Tracing
• Windows Geolocation Service
• Windows Hello
• Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP
• Windows Installer
• Windows Kerberos
• Windows Kernel Memory
• Windows MapUrlToZone
• Windows Mark of the Web (MOTW)
• Windows Message Queuing
• Windows NTLM
• Windows OLE
• Windows PrintWorkflowUserSvc
• Windows Recovery Environment Agent
• Windows Remote Desktop Services
• Windows SPNEGO Extended Negotiation
• Windows Security Account Manager
• Windows Smart Card
• Windows SmartScreen
• Windows Telephony Service
• Windows Themes
• Windows UPnP Device Host
• Windows Virtual Trusted Platform Module
• Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave
• Windows WLAN Auto Config Service
• Windows Web Threat Defense User Service
• Windows Win32K - GRFX

Remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities accounted for 36.9% of the vulnerabilities patched this month, followed by elevation of privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities at 25.5%.

Important CVE-2025-21333, CVE-2025-21334, CVE-2025-21335 | Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-21333, CVE-2025-21334 and CVE-2025-21335 are EoP vulnerabilities in the Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration Virtualization Service Provider (VSP). All three vulnerabilities were assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and rated important. An authenticated, local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to elevate privileges to SYSTEM. Two of the three vulnerabilities were unattributed, with CVE-2025-21333 being attributed to an Anonymous researcher.

According to Microsoft all three vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild as zero-days. No specific details about the in-the-wild exploitation were public at the time this blog post was released.

Important CVE-2025-21186, CVE-2025-21366, CVE-2025-21395 | Microsoft Access Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21186, CVE-2025-21366 and CVE-2025-21395 are RCE vulnerabilities in Microsoft Access, a database management system. All three vulnerabilities were assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and rated important. A remote, unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by convincing a target through social engineering to download and open a malicious file. Successful exploitation would grant an attacker arbitrary code execution privileges on the vulnerable system. This update “blocks potentially malicious extensions from being sent in an email.”

According to Microsoft, these three vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed prior to a patch being available (zero-days). They are attributed to Unpatched.ai, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to “help find and analyze” vulnerabilities.

Important CVE-2025-21308 | Windows Themes Spoofing Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21308 is a spoofing vulnerability affecting Windows Themes. This vulnerability received a CVSSv3 score of 6.5 and was publicly disclosed prior to a patch being made available. According to Microsoft, successful exploitation requires an attacker to convince a user to load a malicious file, then convince the user to “manipulate the specially crafted file.” Microsoft has provided a list of mitigations including disabling New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM) or using group policy to block NTLM hashes. For more information on the mitigation guidance, please refer to the Microsoft advisory.

Important CVE-2025-21275 | Windows App Package Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21275 is an EoP vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows App Package Installer. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and is rated important. A local, authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to obtain SYSTEM privileges. These types of flaws are often associated with post-compromise activity, after an attacker has breached a system through other means.

According to Microsoft, this vulnerability was publicly disclosed prior to a patch being available. It is attributed to an Anonymous researcher.

Critical CVE-2025-21297, CVE-2025-21309 | Windows Remote Desktop Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21297 and CVE-2025-21309 are critical RCE vulnerabilities affecting Windows Remote Desktop Services. Both of these vulnerabilities were assigned CVSSv3 scores of 8.1, however CVE-2025-21309 was assessed as “Exploitation More Likely” according to Microsoft’s Exploitability Index, while CVE-2025-21297 was assessed as “Exploitation Less Likely.”

According to Microsoft, successful exploitation of these flaws requires an attacker to connect to a system with the Remote Desktop Gateway role and trigger a race-condition that creates a use-after-free scenario which can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code.

Critical CVE-2025-21298 | Windows OLE Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21298 is a RCE vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 9.8 and is rated critical. It has been assessed as “Exploitation More Likely.” An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted email to a target. Successful exploitation would lead to remote code execution on the target system if the target opens this email using a vulnerable version of Microsoft Outlook or if their software is able to preview the email through a preview pane.

Microsoft’s advisory for this vulnerability recommends configuring Microsoft Outlook to read email messages “in plain text format” instead of a rich format that will display other types of content, such as photos, animations or specialized fonts. To configure Outlook in this way, please refer to the following article, Read email messages in plain text.

Tenable Solutions

A list of all the plugins released for Microsoft’s January 2025 Patch Tuesday update can be found here. As always, we recommend patching systems as soon as possible and regularly scanning your environment to identify those systems yet to be patched.

For more specific guidance on best practices for vulnerability assessments, please refer to our blog post on How to Perform Efficient Vulnerability Assessments with Tenable.

Get more information

• Microsoft's January 2025 Security Updates
• Tenable plugins for Microsoft January 2025 Patch Tuesday Security Updates

Join Tenable's Security Response Team on the Tenable Community.
Learn more about Tenable One, the Exposure Management Platform for the modern attack surface.

The post Microsoft’s January 2025 Patch Tuesday Addresses 157 CVEs (CVE-2025-21333, CVE-2025-21334, CVE-2025-21335) appeared first on Security Boulevard.

1. 10Critical
2. 147Important
3. 0Moderate
4. 0Low

Microsoft addresses 157 CVEs in the first Patch Tuesday release of 2025 and the largest Patch Tuesday update ever with three CVEs exploited in the wild, and five CVEs publicly disclosed prior to patches being made available.

Microsoft patched 157 CVEs in its January 2025 Patch Tuesday release, with 10 rated critical and 147 rated as important. Our counts omitted two vulnerabilities, one reported by GitHub and another reported by CERT/CC. To date, the January 2025 Patch Tuesday release is the largest ever from Microsoft.

This month’s update includes patches for:

• .NET
• .NET and Visual Studio
• .NET,.NET Framework, Visual Studio
• Active Directory Domain Services
• Active Directory Federation Services
• Azure Marketplace SaaS Resources
• BranchCache
• IP Helper
• Internet Explorer
• Line Printer Daemon Service (LPD)
• Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU)
• Microsoft Azure Gateway Manager
• Microsoft Brokering File System
• Microsoft Digest Authentication
• Microsoft Graphics Component
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Office Access
• Microsoft Office Excel
• Microsoft Office OneNote
• Microsoft Office Outlook
• Microsoft Office Outlook for Mac
• Microsoft Office SharePoint
• Microsoft Office Visio
• Microsoft Office Word
• Microsoft Purview
• Microsoft Windows Search Component
• Power Automate
• Reliable Multicast Transport Driver (RMCAST)
• Visual Studio
• Windows BitLocker
• Windows Boot Loader
• Windows Boot Manager
• Windows COM
• Windows Client-Side Caching (CSC) Service
• Windows Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver
• Windows Connected Devices Platform Service
• Windows Cryptographic Services
• Windows DWM Core Library
• Windows Digital Media
• Windows Direct Show
• Windows Event Tracing
• Windows Geolocation Service
• Windows Hello
• Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP
• Windows Installer
• Windows Kerberos
• Windows Kernel Memory
• Windows MapUrlToZone
• Windows Mark of the Web (MOTW)
• Windows Message Queuing
• Windows NTLM
• Windows OLE
• Windows PrintWorkflowUserSvc
• Windows Recovery Environment Agent
• Windows Remote Desktop Services
• Windows SPNEGO Extended Negotiation
• Windows Security Account Manager
• Windows Smart Card
• Windows SmartScreen
• Windows Telephony Service
• Windows Themes
• Windows UPnP Device Host
• Windows Virtual Trusted Platform Module
• Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave
• Windows WLAN Auto Config Service
• Windows Web Threat Defense User Service
• Windows Win32K - GRFX

Remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities accounted for 36.9% of the vulnerabilities patched this month, followed by elevation of privilege (EoP) vulnerabilities at 25.5%.

ImportantCVE-2025-21333, CVE-2025-21334, CVE-2025-21335 | Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Elevation of Privilege Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-21333, CVE-2025-21334 and CVE-2025-21335 are EoP vulnerabilities in the Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration Virtualization Service Provider (VSP). All three vulnerabilities were assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and rated important. An authenticated, local attacker could exploit this vulnerability to elevate privileges to SYSTEM. Two of the three vulnerabilities were unattributed, with CVE-2025-21333 being attributed to an Anonymous researcher.

According to Microsoft all three vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild as zero-days. No specific details about the in-the-wild exploitation were public at the time this blog post was released.

ImportantCVE-2025-21186, CVE-2025-21366, CVE-2025-21395 | Microsoft Access Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21186, CVE-2025-21366 and CVE-2025-21395 are RCE vulnerabilities in Microsoft Access, a database management system. All three vulnerabilities were assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and rated important. A remote, unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by convincing a target through social engineering to download and open a malicious file. Successful exploitation would grant an attacker arbitrary code execution privileges on the vulnerable system. This update “blocks potentially malicious extensions from being sent in an email.”

According to Microsoft, these three vulnerabilities were publicly disclosed prior to a patch being available (zero-days). They are attributed to Unpatched.ai, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to “help find and analyze” vulnerabilities.

ImportantCVE-2025-21308 | Windows Themes Spoofing Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21308 is a spoofing vulnerability affecting Windows Themes. This vulnerability received a CVSSv3 score of 6.5 and was publicly disclosed prior to a patch being made available. According to Microsoft, successful exploitation requires an attacker to convince a user to load a malicious file, then convince the user to “manipulate the specially crafted file.” Microsoft has provided a list of mitigations including disabling New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM) or using group policy to block NTLM hashes. For more information on the mitigation guidance, please refer to the Microsoft advisory.

ImportantCVE-2025-21275 | Windows App Package Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21275 is an EoP vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows App Package Installer. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and is rated important. A local, authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability to obtain SYSTEM privileges. These types of flaws are often associated with post-compromise activity, after an attacker has breached a system through other means.

According to Microsoft, this vulnerability was publicly disclosed prior to a patch being available. It is attributed to an Anonymous researcher.

CriticalCVE-2025-21297, CVE-2025-21309 | Windows Remote Desktop Services Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21297 and CVE-2025-21309 are critical RCE vulnerabilities affecting Windows Remote Desktop Services. Both of these vulnerabilities were assigned CVSSv3 scores of 8.1, however CVE-2025-21309 was assessed as “Exploitation More Likely” according to Microsoft’s Exploitability Index, while CVE-2025-21297 was assessed as “Exploitation Less Likely.”

According to Microsoft, successful exploitation of these flaws requires an attacker to connect to a system with the Remote Desktop Gateway role and trigger a race-condition that creates a use-after-free scenario which can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code.

CriticalCVE-2025-21298 | Windows OLE Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CVE-2025-21298 is a RCE vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 9.8 and is rated critical. It has been assessed as “Exploitation More Likely.” An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted email to a target. Successful exploitation would lead to remote code execution on the target system if the target opens this email using a vulnerable version of Microsoft Outlook or if their software is able to preview the email through a preview pane.

Microsoft’s advisory for this vulnerability recommends configuring Microsoft Outlook to read email messages “in plain text format” instead of a rich format that will display other types of content, such as photos, animations or specialized fonts. To configure Outlook in this way, please refer to the following article, Read email messages in plain text.

Tenable Solutions

A list of all the plugins released for Microsoft’s January 2025 Patch Tuesday update can be found here. As always, we recommend patching systems as soon as possible and regularly scanning your environment to identify those systems yet to be patched.

For more specific guidance on best practices for vulnerability assessments, please refer to our blog post on How to Perform Efficient Vulnerability Assessments with Tenable.

Get more information

• Microsoft's January 2025 Security Updates
• Tenable plugins for Microsoft January 2025 Patch Tuesday Security Updates

Join Tenable's Security Response Team on the Tenable Community.
Learn more about Tenable One, the Exposure Management Platform for the modern attack surface.

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in Microsoft Windows. This affects an unknown part of the component Virtual Trusted Platform Module. The manipulation leads to denial of service. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-21284. It is possible to launch the attack on the local host. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Microsoft Windows. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component COM for Windows. The manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21281. Local access is required to approach this attack. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

Microsoft has released the Windows 11 KB5050009 and KB5050021 cumulative updates for versions 24H2 and 23H2 to fix security vulnerabilities and issues. [...]

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in Microsoft Windows. Affected is an unknown function of the component Virtual Trusted Platform Module. The manipulation leads to denial of service. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-21280. An attack has to be approached locally. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability was found in Microsoft Windows. It has been rated as problematic. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Remote Desktop Gateway. The manipulation leads to race condition. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-21278. The attack needs to be approached locally. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability was found in Microsoft Windows. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects unknown code of the component Message Queuing. The manipulation leads to buffer over-read. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-21277. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability was found in Microsoft Windows. It has been classified as critical. This affects an unknown part of the component MapUrlToZone. The manipulation leads to integer underflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-21276. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability was found in Microsoft Windows up to Server 2025 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component App Package Installer. The manipulation leads to improper authorization. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-21275. Local access is required to approach this attack. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability has been found in Microsoft Windows and classified as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component Event Tracing. The manipulation leads to link following. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21274. An attack has to be approached locally. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Microsoft Windows. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component COM Server. The manipulation leads to uninitialized resource. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2025-21272. It is possible to launch the attack on the local host. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Microsoft Windows 10 1809/10 21H2/10 22H2/Server 2019/Server 2022. This vulnerability affects unknown code of the component Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver. The manipulation leads to buffer over-read. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-21271. Attacking locally is a requirement. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Microsoft Windows. This affects an unknown part of the component Message Queuing. The manipulation leads to resource consumption. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-21270. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Microsoft Windows. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Digital Media. The manipulation leads to out-of-bounds read. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-21260. It is possible to launch the attack on the physical device. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Microsoft Windows. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component Digital Media. The manipulation leads to out-of-bounds read. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-21258. It is possible to launch the attack on the physical device. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

A vulnerability classified as problematic has been found in Microsoft Windows. Affected is an unknown function of the component WLAN AutoConfig Service. The manipulation leads to out-of-bounds read. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-21257. Attacking locally is a requirement. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to apply a patch to fix this issue.

This post first appeared on blog.netwrix.com and was written by Jonathan Blackwell.
Introduction to PowerShell Environment Variables Environment variables are predefined variables in an operating system, they are available in the form of key-value pairs which store important system-level or user-specific information, such as paths, user configurations, and system settings. These variables are accessible in PowerShell scripts and sessions, playing a significant role in tasks like configuring … Continued