Microsoft’s May 2025 Patch Tuesday Addresses 71 CVEs (CVE-2025-32701, CVE-2025-32706, CVE-2025-30400)

CVE-2025-30385, CVE-2025-32701 and CVE-2025-32706 are EoP vulnerabilities in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver. Each was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and are rated as important. Both CVE-2025-32701 and CVE-2025-32706 were exploited in the wild as zero-days while CVE-2025-30385 is assessed as “Exploitation More Likely” according to Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

Prior to this month’s release, Microsoft has patched two other EoP vulnerabilities in the Windows CLFS driver in 2025, including CVE-2025-29824, exploited as a zero-day vulnerability in the April 2025 Patch Tuesday release. In 2024, there were eight CLFS vulnerabilities patched, including one zero-day vulnerability in the CLFS driver that was exploited (CVE-2024-49138) and patched in the December 2024 Patch Tuesday release. Windows CLFS continues to be a popular attack vector for attackers and has been exploited by ransomware gangs.

CVE-2025-30400 is an EoP vulnerability in the Windows Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) Core library. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and is rated as important. Microsoft notes that it was exploited as a zero-day. Successful exploitation would allow an attacker to elevate their privileges by exploiting a use after free flaw.

This is the seventh EoP vulnerability in DWM Core Library patched this year. Eight DWM vulnerabilities were patched in 2024, including one zero-day vulnerability that was actively exploited (CVE-2024-30051) and patched in the May 2024 Patch Tuesday release.

CVE-2025-30397 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Scripting Engine that can be exploited to achieve arbitrary code execution on a target machine. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.5 and is rated as Important. The attack complexity is rated as high, and Microsoft notes the target must first be running Microsoft Edge in Internet Explorer mode. Successful exploitation requires the user to click on a crafted URL. This vulnerability was reportedly exploited in the wild as a zero-day.

CVE-2025-26685 is a spoofing vulnerability in Microsoft Defender for Identity. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 6.5 and is rated as Important. This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker with Local Area Network (LAN) access to perform a spoofing attack. According to Microsoft, this vulnerability was disclosed prior to patches being made available.

CVE-2025-32709 is a EoP vulnerability in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and rated as Important. An authenticated attacker can leverage this vulnerability to elevate their privileges to administrator by exploiting a user after free condition. Microsoft notes that this vulnerability was exploited in the wild as a zero-day, the second to be exploited in 2025, preceded by CVE-2025-21418 which was addressed in February’s Patch Tuesday release.

CVE-2025-32702 is a RCE vulnerability in Visual Studio. It was assigned a CVSSv3 score of 7.8 and rated as Important. Microsoft notes that the attack vector for this vulnerability is local, and that an unauthenticated attacker could exploit this flaw in order to execute code. This is the third RCE vulnerability in Visual Studio that was patched in 2025.