CVE-2025-1055 is a medium-severity vulnerability identified in the K7RKScan.sys driver, a component of the K7 Security Anti-Malware suite. This vulnerability arises from missing authorization checks (CWE-862) in the driver's IOCTL (Input Output Control) handler. Specifically, a local user with low privileges can send specially crafted IOCTL requests to the driver, which lacks proper access control mechanisms. This flaw allows the attacker to terminate a wide range of processes running with administrative or system-level privileges, except those processes inherently protected by the operating system. The vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or integrity directly but can cause a denial of service (DoS) by disrupting critical services or privileged applications. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.6, reflecting a medium severity with the vector AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H, indicating that exploitation requires local access, high attack complexity, low privileges, no user interaction, and that the scope is changed due to kernel-level impact. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability affects all versions of the product as indicated by the affectedVersions field. The root cause is the lack of proper authorization checks in the kernel-mode driver, enabling privilege escalation in terms of process termination capabilities, which can be leveraged to disrupt system availability.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to system availability. Since K7 Security Anti-Malware is used to protect endpoints, the ability for a low-privilege local user to terminate critical system or administrative processes could lead to service outages, disruption of security monitoring, or interruption of business-critical applications. This could be exploited by malicious insiders or attackers who have gained limited local access, potentially as part of a multi-stage attack. The disruption of anti-malware processes themselves could also facilitate further compromise by disabling security controls. Although confidentiality and integrity are not directly impacted, the availability impact can have cascading effects on operational continuity and incident response capabilities. Organizations with strict uptime requirements or those operating critical infrastructure may face increased risk. The lack of known exploits reduces immediate threat but does not eliminate the risk, especially as the vulnerability is publicly disclosed and could be weaponized in the future.

Given the vulnerability stems from missing authorization checks in a kernel-mode driver, the primary mitigation is to apply vendor patches once available. Until patches are released, organizations should implement strict local user account management to minimize the number of users with local access, especially those with low privileges on systems running K7 Security Anti-Malware. Employing application whitelisting and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions can help detect anomalous IOCTL calls or process terminations. Restricting physical and remote access to endpoints reduces the attack surface. Monitoring system logs for unexpected process terminations or driver IOCTL activity can provide early warning signs. Additionally, consider deploying alternative or supplementary endpoint protection solutions that do not exhibit this vulnerability. Coordination with K7 Security for timely updates and advisories is critical. Finally, organizations should review and harden local privilege escalation protections and ensure robust backup and recovery procedures to mitigate potential denial of service impacts.