CVE-2025-55241 is a critical elevation of privilege vulnerability affecting Microsoft Entra, a component of Microsoft's identity and access management solutions. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-287, indicating improper authentication. This flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to exploit the system remotely (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L), without requiring any privileges (PR:N) or user interaction (UI:N). The vulnerability impacts confidentiality, integrity, and availability at a high level (C:H/I:H/A:H) and has a scope change (S:C), meaning the exploit can affect resources beyond the initially vulnerable component. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 10.0, reflecting the maximum severity. The vulnerability enables attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms in Microsoft Entra, potentially granting them unauthorized access to sensitive identity and access management functions. This could lead to full compromise of identity services, unauthorized privilege escalation, and subsequent lateral movement within affected environments. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the critical nature and ease of exploitation make this a significant threat. No specific affected versions are listed, suggesting the vulnerability may impact multiple or all versions of Microsoft Entra. The lack of available patches at the time of publication further increases risk exposure.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a severe risk due to the widespread adoption of Microsoft Entra and Azure Active Directory services across enterprises and public sector entities. Compromise of identity management systems can lead to unauthorized access to critical business applications, sensitive personal data protected under GDPR, and internal networks. This can result in data breaches, disruption of business operations, financial losses, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage. Given the criticality of identity services in cloud and hybrid environments, exploitation could facilitate large-scale attacks, including ransomware deployment, espionage, or sabotage. The impact is especially pronounced for sectors with stringent compliance requirements such as finance, healthcare, and government institutions prevalent in Europe.

Organizations should immediately prioritize monitoring and detection of anomalous authentication attempts and privilege escalations within Microsoft Entra environments. Implement enhanced logging and alerting for identity-related activities. Apply the principle of least privilege rigorously and review existing access controls to minimize potential attack surfaces. Until an official patch is released, consider employing compensating controls such as conditional access policies that enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) and restrict access based on trusted locations or devices. Engage with Microsoft support and security advisories to obtain timely updates and patches. Conduct thorough security assessments and penetration testing focused on identity management components. Additionally, prepare incident response plans specifically addressing identity compromise scenarios to ensure rapid containment and remediation.