CVE-2025-0542
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedLocal privilege escalation due to incorrect assignment of privileges of temporary files in the update mechanism of G DATA Management Server. This vulnerability allows a local, unprivileged attacker to escalate privileges on affected installations by placing a crafted ZIP archive in a globally writable directory, which gets unpacked in the context of SYSTEM and results in arbitrary file write.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceG DATA Management Server's update mechanism creates temporary files in a globally writable directory with incorrect privileges. A local unprivileged attacker can place a crafted ZIP archive in this directory, which gets extracted by the update process running as SYSTEM, allowing arbitrary file write and local privilege escalation.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify G DATA Management Server installationLook for G DATA Management Server in installed programs (Control Panel > Programs and Features, or check for G DATA in Program Files directory)Affected if G DATA Management Server is installed and no vendor patch has been applied
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Check update service accountOpen Services, locate the G DATA update service, right-click and view Properties to see the 'Log on as' accountAffected if The service runs as SYSTEM or another privileged account
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Identify update temporary directoriesCheck common temp locations (Windows\Temp, the user's AppData\Local\Temp, or the G DATA installation folder for update temp folders) for directories created by the update mechanismAffected if Temporary directories used by the update process are world-writable or have weak permissions
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Inspect temp directories for ZIP archivesList all .zip files in the identified temporary directories, noting file names, timestamps, and ownershipAffected if Unknown or suspicious ZIP files exist in the update temp directories that were not placed by administrators
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Check for recent file extraction activityReview the temporary directories for newly extracted files, particularly in system or privileged locations, using file system auditing or manual inspectionAffected if Files have been extracted to locations outside the temp directory, indicating the vulnerability was triggered
A user is affected if G DATA Management Server is installed, the update service runs with elevated privileges, and temporary directories used by the update mechanism are writable by unprivileged users.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor patch from G DATA for CVE-2025-0542 immediately. Until patch is available, restrict write access to update temp directories and monitor for suspicious ZIP files in temporary locations.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-0542 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-0542 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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