Uncontrolled Search Path (DLL Hijack)Weakness · CWE-427

CVE-2025-12852

HIGH · 8.4 CVSS v4.0 Published 2025-11-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

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 · unedited
DLL Loading vulnerability in NEC Corporation RakurakuMusen Start EX All Verisons allows a attacker to manipulate the PC environment to cause unintended operations on the user's device.

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 · moderate confidence

A DLL loading vulnerability in NEC RakurakuMusen Start EX allows attackers to manipulate the PC environment (likely by placing malicious DLL files in accessible locations) causing the application to load unintended DLLs and perform unauthorized operations on the user's device.

MitigationImplement secure DLL loading by using absolute paths, removing current directory from DLL search order, and digitally signing all DLLs to prevent tampering. Verify all loaded DLLs originate from trusted sources before execution.

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
None
Authentication
X
User interaction
A
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify if NEC RakurakuMusen Start EX is installed
    Check for the application in the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall or look for the executable (typically in C:\Program Files\NEC\RakurakuMusen Start EX or similar paths)
    Affected if The application is present on the system
  2. Identify the installed application version
    Right-click the application executable, select Properties, and check the Details tab for the version number, or use PowerShell: Get-Item 'C:\Program Files\NEC\RakurakuMusen Start EX\*.exe' | Select-Object Name, VersionInfo
    Affected if A version is found that matches the affected product range (if known) or any version if no version data is available
  3. Check application directory permissions
    Right-click the application installation folder, go to Properties > Security, and verify which users have Write or Modify permissions. Alternatively, run: icacls 'C:\Program Files\NEC\RakurakuMusen Start EX'
    Affected if Non-privileged users have Write or Modify access to the application directory, allowing them to place malicious DLLs
  4. Inspect DLL search path configuration
    Use Process Monitor from Sysinternals to trace DLL loading events when the application launches, or check if the application uses unsafe DLL loading functions (LoadLibrary with relative paths). Look for DLLs being loaded from the current working directory.
    Affected if The application loads DLLs from the current directory or uses relative paths without proper validation
  5. Scan for suspicious DLLs in application-accessible locations
    Check the application directory and user-writable locations (Desktop, Downloads, Documents) for unexpected DLL files that could be planted. Run: Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Program Files\NEC\RakurakuMusen Start EX' -Filter '*.dll' -Recurse | Select-Object Name, LastWriteTime
    Affected if Unexpected or recently modified DLL files exist in the application directory or accessible paths

If NEC RakakunMusen Start EX is installed and its directory or accessible paths are writable by untrusted users, the DLL hijacking vulnerability can be exploited.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement secure DLL loading by using absolute paths, removing current directory from DLL search order, and digitally signing all DLLs to prevent tampering. Verify all loaded DLLs originate from trusted sources before execution.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
25.0 hours of engineering $4,400
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-12852 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-12852 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data