The month-to-month report is comparatively light-weight, with some cellular updates or fixes which have already been carried out server-side and shouldn’t be a priority to admins, mentioned Tyler Reguly, affiliate director of safety R&D at international cybersecurity software program and companies supplier Fortra. One other vulnerability impacts solely Microsoft Floor {hardware}.
February replace patches two exploited vulnerabilities
The 2 exploited vulnerabilities are:
- CVE-2025-21391, a Home windows storage flaw that might let a menace actor delete recordsdata.
- CVE-2025-21418, a gap for privilege escalation starting in Home windows Ancillary Operate Driver for WinSock.
“Whereas each vulnerabilities are rated Vital by Microsoft and have CVSS scores within the 7.x vary, I might deal with the Home windows AFD for WinSock vulnerability as crucial on the subject of patching, provided that it has seen lively exploitation,” Reguly mentioned in an e mail to TechRepublic.
Vulnerabilities have been discovered within the Home windows Ancillary Operate Driver for WinSock 9 occasions since 2022, together with situations attributed to a North Korea-sponsored superior persistent menace group, Tenable senior employees analysis engineer Satnam Narang identified in a remark to KrebsonSecurity.
“The basis trigger is inadequate validation of user-supplied enter, permitting low-privileged customers to ship specifically crafted information that overflows the buffer,” wrote Mike Walters, president and co-founder of patch administration firm Action1 in a weblog publish.
No person interplay is required to patch both of the exploited vulnerabilities.
CVE-2025-21391, the zero-day Home windows storage flaw, stems from the best way Home windows resolves file paths and follows hyperlinks, Walters mentioned. File deletion is just the start of the issues it might trigger, because it might result in privilege escalation, undesirable entry to safety logs or configurations, malware injection, information manipulation, or different assaults.
“With a CVSS rating of seven.1, the CVSS metrics define that this vulnerability doesn’t have an effect on confidentiality, so no delicate information could be accessed,” mentioned Kev Breen, senior director of menace analysis at cybersecurity platform maker Immersive, in an e mail to TechRepublic. “Nonetheless, it may severely have an effect on information integrity and availability.”
One vulnerability scores CVSS 9.0
The very best CVSS rating addressed within the February patch pack is CVE-2025-21198, rated at 9.0. This CVE might let a menace actor carry out a distant assault towards a Linux agent in Excessive Efficiency Computing clusters. Nonetheless, it solely works if the attacker already has entry to the community the cluster is connected to.
“This networking requirement ought to restrict the affect of what would in any other case be a extra severe vulnerability,” Reguly mentioned.
SEE: Microsoft PowerToys now consists of Sysinternals’ ZoomIT, a display recording software meant for technical displays.
Microsoft patches spoofing bug affecting all shopper and server variations
CVE-2025-21377 was already publicly disclosed, however the patch is rolling out at this time. With this vulnerability a menace actor might reveal a person’s NTLMv2 hash, letting the attacker spoof the person’s id. Walters mentioned any group utilizing Home windows techniques that don’t completely depend on Kerberos for authentication is in danger.
CVE-2025-21377 is “one other CVE to patch sooner slightly than later,” Breen mentioned.
“The person doesn’t must open or run the executable however merely viewing the file in Explorer could possibly be sufficient to set off the vulnerability,” mentioned Breen. “This particular vulnerability is called an NTLM relay or pass-the-hash assault and this type of assault is a favourite for menace actors because it permits them to impersonate customers within the community.”
Lastly, Ben McCarthy, lead cybersecurity engineer at Immersive, identified CVE-2025-21381, a vulnerability permitting for distant code execution in Excel.
“Excel vulnerabilities are significantly harmful as a result of Excel macros and embedded scripts have traditionally been a serious assault vector for APT teams, ransomware operators, and monetary fraud campaigns, typically bypassing conventional safety defenses,” McCarthy mentioned.
Different main patches throughout manufacturers
As Walters identified, Chrome 131 landed not too long ago, bringing patches for a number of reminiscence vulnerabilities. Not one of the vulnerabilities Google recognized have been exploited. Apple has additionally began rolling out iOS 18.3.1, which features a repair for a bodily assault which will have been exploited towards particular people. Ivanti really useful admins to observe for updates from Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge this week.
“Browsers are a main goal for attackers to focus on customers,” IT software program firm Ivanti’s vice chairman of product administration for safety merchandise Chris Goettl wrote in a weblog publish. “Whereas together with browsers in your month-to-month replace course of is really useful, it leaves plenty of CVEs uncovered in between cycles. It’s really useful to maneuver browsers to a weekly Precedence Updates cadence.”
Final however not least, Adobe launched updates for InDesign, Photoshop Parts, Illustrator, and extra.