CVE-2025-49385VulnerabilityPublished 17 Jun 2025

CVE-2025-49385: Trend Micro Internet Security (Consumer) · Windows Shortcut Following

Affects Trend Micro Internet Security (Consumer)Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.8High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 7% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 17 Jun 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Trend Micro, Inc. Trend Micro Internet Security (Consumer)	Affected =17.8	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

1. Immediate mitigation should focus on restricting local user permissions to prevent untrusted users from accessing or manipulating Trend Micro installation directories and files. 2. Employ application whitelisting and file integrity monitoring to detect unauthorized changes or deletions of security product files. 3. Use endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for suspicious local activities indicative of privilege escalation attempts. 4. Until an official patch is released, consider temporarily disabling or limiting the use of the affected Trend Micro version on critical systems, or deploying alternative endpoint protection solutions. 5. Educate users on the risks of local privilege escalation and enforce strict physical and logical access controls to reduce the chance of local attacker presence. 6. Monitor vendor communications closely for patches or updates and plan rapid deployment once available. 7. Conduct internal audits to identify systems running the vulnerable version and prioritize remediation. 8. Implement network segmentation to limit the impact of compromised endpoints. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling local access, monitoring integrity of security software files, and preparing for rapid patch deployment.

Description

Trend Micro Security 17.8 (Consumer) is vulnerable to a link following local privilege escalation vulnerability that could allow a local attacker to unintentionally delete privileged Trend Micro files including its own.

Impact

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk especially for consumer endpoints and potentially small business environments relying on Trend Micro Internet Security 17.8. The ability for a local attacker to escalate privileges and disable or degrade endpoint protection can lead to broader compromise of systems, data breaches, and persistence of malware. In environments where endpoint security is a critical layer of defense, such as financial institutions, healthcare providers, and critical infrastructure operators, exploitation could facilitate lateral movement and data exfiltration. The impact on confidentiality is high as attackers could disable security controls to access sensitive data. Integrity is compromised because the security product’s files can be deleted or altered, and availability is affected due to potential denial of security services. Although the attack requires local access, this could be achieved through social engineering, physical access, or exploiting other vulnerabilities to gain initial foothold. The lack of user interaction requirement increases the risk in automated or unattended systems. Given the widespread use of Trend Micro products in Europe, especially in consumer and SMB markets, the vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted attacks or by malware aiming to disable endpoint defenses.

CWE-64Windows Shortcut Following (.LNK) (opens in a new tab)
Variant weaknessLikelihood of exploit: Low
The product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently handle when the file is a Windows shortcut (.LNK) whose target is outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files.
Architecture and Design · Separation of Privilege
Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 17 Jun 2025, 21:04 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-64

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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