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Visual Studio 2017Application · Microsoft

CVE-2025-24998

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 15.9.71 / 16.11.45 or later.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

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
Uncontrolled search path element in Visual Studio allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges 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 confidence

Visual Studio contains an uncontrolled search path element vulnerability where the application may load malicious DLLs from user-controlled locations instead of using secure, hardcoded paths. An authorized attacker with local access can place a specially crafted DLL in a search path location, causing Visual Studio to load and execute it with elevated privileges, achieving local privilege escalation.

MitigationApply the official Visual Studio security update/patch from Microsoft to address the DLL search path vulnerability. Organizations should also review and secure DLL search paths in their development environments and ensure users operate with minimal necessary privileges.

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
Visual Studio 2017Application
Affected:>= 15.0, < 15.9.71
Visual Studio 2019Application
Affected:>= 16.0, < 16.11.45
Visual Studio 2022Application
Affected:>= 17.8.0, < 17.8.19>= 17.10.0, < 17.10.12>= 17.12.0, < 17.12.6>= 17.13.0, < 17.13.3

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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 checks

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

  1. Identify installed Visual Studio version
    Open Windows Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\SxS\VS7 (for VS2017/2019) or check the version via the Visual Studio Installer, or run 'devenv.exe /?' and note the version in the output
    Affected if Unable to locate Visual Studio installation or version information - not vulnerable as VS not installed
  2. Determine exact Visual Studio 2017 build number
    Check registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0\Version or look at the version property of Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
    Affected if Version is 15.0 or higher but lower than 15.9.71 - vulnerable
  3. Determine exact Visual Studio 2019 build number
    Check registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\16.0\Version or look at the version property of Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
    Affected if Version is 16.0 or higher but lower than 16.11.45 - vulnerable
  4. Determine exact Visual Studio 2022 build number
    Check registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\17.0\Version or look at the version property of Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
    Affected if Version falls within any of these ranges: >= 17.8.0 and < 17.8.19, OR >= 17.10.0 and < 17.10.12, OR >= 17.12.0 and < 17.12.6, OR >= 17.13.0 and < 17.13.3 - vulnerable

A system is affected if Visual Studio 2017 (15.0-15.9.70), 2019 (16.0-16.11.44), or 2022 (specific minor version ranges within 17.8.x, 17.10.x, 17.12.x, or 17.13.x) is installed and the user has local access to run Visual Studio.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 15.9.71 / 16.11.45 / 17.8.19 or later
Fixed in 15.9.7116.11.4517.8.19
Interim mitigation

Apply the official Visual Studio security update/patch from Microsoft to address the DLL search path vulnerability. Organizations should also review and secure DLL search paths in their development environments and ensure users operate with minimal necessary privileges.

Recommended fix High confidence

Visual Studio 2017: 15.9.71+ | Visual Studio 2019: 16.11.45+ | Visual Studio 2022: 17.13.3+ (or any 17.8.19+, 17.10.12+, 17.12.6+)

  1. Open Visual Studio and go to Help > Microsoft Visual Studio > About to confirm current version
  2. For Visual Studio 2022: Update to version 17.13.3 or later via Help > Check for Updates, or download from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
  3. For Visual Studio 2019: Update to version 16.11.45 or later via Help > Check for Updates
  4. For Visual Studio 2017: Update to version 15.9.71 or later via Help > Check for Updates
  5. Restart Visual Studio after the update completes
  6. Verify the installed version matches or exceeds the fixed release numbers above
Caveat Standard Visual Studio minor version updates typically have low risk; verify extension compatibility before production use

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

Fix this in Visual Studio 2017 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.

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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-2025-24998 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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