CVE-2025-9491

Microsoft Windows LNK File UI Misrepresentation Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

At a glance

Severity: MEDIUM 4.6
EPSS: EPSS 76.00 % · percentile 100 (2026-10-27)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2025-08-26
Updated: 2025-12-05
Assigner: zdi
NVD status: Modified

Description

Microsoft Windows LNK File UI Misrepresentation Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on affected installations of Microsoft Windows. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must visit a malicious page or open a malicious file. The specific flaw exists within the handling of .LNK files. Crafted data in an .LNK file can cause hazardous content in the file to be invisible to a user who inspects the file via the Windows-provided user interface. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute code in the context of the current user. Was ZDI-CAN-25373.

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.0	HIGH 7.0	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	zdi
CVSS 3.1	LOW 3.3	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N	CISA-ADP
CVSS 4.0	MEDIUM 4.6	CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N	CISA-ADP
CVSS 4.0	MEDIUM 4.6	CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X	NVD · 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)
CVSS 3.1	LOW 3.3	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N	NVD · 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 (Secondary)
CVSS 3.0	HIGH 7.0	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	NVD · zdi-disclosures@trendmicro.com (Secondary)

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-451

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2025-28860
GCVE · GCVE-0-2025-9491

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11_23h2:10.0.22631.4169:*:*:*:*:*:x64:*

Affected products

Product	Versions
Microsoft · Windows	affected 11 Enterprise 23H2 22631.4169 x64

References

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD