CVE-2025-21264
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 · uneditedFiles or directories accessible to external parties in Visual Studio Code allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally.
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 confidenceVisual Studio Code contains a vulnerability where files or directories accessible to external parties can be accessed, allowing an unauthorized attacker to bypass a local security feature that normally controls workspace file and directory access.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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< 1.100.1CVSS 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
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N
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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Check installed Visual Studio Code versionOpen VS Code, go to Help > About, or run 'code --version' from command line. Compare the version number to the affected range: versions prior to 1.100.1 are vulnerable.Affected if The installed version is 1.100.0 or earlier (less than 1.100.1)
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Verify Workspace Trust settingsOpen VS Code Settings (Ctrl+, or Cmd+,) and search for 'workspaceTrust'. Check if workspace trust is enabled or if there are any policy overrides.Affected if Workspace trust is disabled or set to bypass restrictions for untrusted workspaces
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Inspect trusted workspace filesCheck for any .code-workspace files in your user directory or recent projects that may contain trust settings. Look in %APPDATA%/Code/User/ or ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/ for workspace configurations.Affected if There are workspace files with trust settings explicitly allowing untrusted code execution
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Review extension permissionsOpen VS Code Settings and navigate to Extensions > Extension Settings. Check if any extensions have file system access permissions granted beyond defaults.Affected if Extensions have been granted broad file system access permissions in untrusted workspace contexts
You are affected if Visual Studio Code version is less than 1.100.1 and you use workspace trust features to control file access restrictions.
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.
dbcve · scoped1.100.1
Update Visual Studio Code to the latest version and review workspace trust settings to ensure only trusted extensions and workspaces are opened.
Visual Studio Code 1.100.1 or later
- Open Visual Studio Code
- Click on the Settings gear icon in the bottom left corner
- Select 'Check for Updates' from the menu
- If an update is available, click 'Download and Install'
- Restart Visual Studio Code after the update completes
- Alternatively, download the latest version from the official Visual Studio Code website (code.visualstudio.com)
- Install the new version, which will be version 1.100.1 or later
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-21264 — 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-2025-21264 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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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.
- 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