CVE-2025-53395: Paramount Macrium Reflect · Uncontrolled Search Path Element
Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.7 High.
Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 11:07 UTC
- 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/AC:L/AV:L/A:H/C:H/I:H/PR:H/S:C/UI:RExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Aug 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 26 Oct 2026.
What to do
AI-suggested
- Restrict local administrative privileges to only trusted personnel and minimize the number of users with such rights to reduce the attack surface.
- Educate users with administrative access to avoid opening backup files (.mrimgx) from untrusted or unknown sources.
- Implement application whitelisting or code integrity policies to prevent unauthorized DLLs from loading in the Macrium Reflect directories.
- Monitor directories where backups are stored for unexpected or suspicious DLL files, especially VSSSvr.dll, and establish alerts for changes.
- Use endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools to detect anomalous DLL loading or process behaviors related to ReflectMonitor.exe.
- Isolate backup storage locations with strict access controls and consider mounting backups in controlled environments or virtual machines to limit impact.
- Regularly review and audit backup and recovery procedures to ensure they are resilient against tampering.
- Stay updated with vendor advisories and apply patches promptly once available.
- Consider deploying application sandboxing or containerization for backup mounting operations to contain potential exploits.
Description
Paramount Macrium Reflect through 2025-06-26 allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges via a crafted .mrimgx backup file and a malicious VSSSvr.dll located in the same directory. When a user with administrative privileges mounts a backup by opening the .mrimgx file, Reflect loads the attacker's VSSSvr.dll after the mount completes. This occurs because of untrusted DLL search path behavior in ReflectMonitor.exe.