dbcve.org
Windows 10 21h2Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-2025-21234

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-01-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.0.19044.5371 / 10.0.19045.5371 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

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
Windows PrintWorkflowUserSvc Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-20

The application accepts input without confirming it is well-formed or within expected bounds, so malformed data can push the program into states its author never anticipated. Attackers probe these gaps to trigger crashes, bypass logic, or feed tainted values into more dangerous operations downstream. Remediating it well means validating and normalising every input at the boundary against a strict allow-list — not merely filtering known-bad values.

General guidance for the improper input validation class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Windows 10 21h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19044.5371
Windows 10 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19045.5371
Windows 11 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22621.4751
Windows 11 23h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22631.4751
Windows 11 24h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.26100.2894
Windows Server 2022Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.20348.3091
Windows Server 2022 23h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.25398.1369
Windows Server 2025Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.26100.2894

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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 10.0.19044.5371 / 10.0.19045.5371 / 10.0.20348.3091 or later
Fixed in 10.0.19044.537110.0.19045.537110.0.20348.3091
Vendor patch msrc.microsoft.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Windows 10 21h2: 10.0.19044.5371+ | Windows 10 22h2: 10.0.19045.5371+ | Windows 11 22h2: 10.0.22621.4751+ | Windows 11 23h2: 10.0.22631.4751+ | Windows 11 24h2: 10.0.26100.2894+ | Windows Server 2022: 10.0.20348.3091+ | Windows Server 2022 23h2: 10.0.25398.1369+ | Windows Server 2025: 10.0.26100.289

  1. Identify the current Windows version and build number by running 'winver' or 'systeminfo' in Command Prompt
  2. Determine the specific Windows edition (Home, Pro, Enterprise, etc.) and architecture (x64, ARM64)
  3. Apply the corresponding security update from Microsoft Update Catalog, Windows Update, or WSUS for CVE-2025-21234. The update is typically released as part of the monthly cumulative update.
  4. After installation, restart the affected system to complete the patch process
  5. Verify the patch was successfully applied by checking the installed updates list or running 'systeminfo' to confirm the OS build matches or exceeds the fixed version for your Windows edition
  6. For enterprise deployments, verify through WSUS, SCCM, or Intune that the security update is detected as installed
Caveat Standard Windows cumulative update - review Microsoft KB article for any known issues before deployment in production environments

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-21234 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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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-2025-21234 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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