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Visual Studio 2022Application · Microsoft

CVE-2025-29802

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-04-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 17.8.20 / 17.10.13 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
Improper access control 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

This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio stemming from improper access control. An authorized attacker who already has some level of access to the system can exploit this to gain higher privileges locally. The CVSS 7.3 indicates significant but not critical severity, with local attack vector and low attack complexity.

MitigationApply Microsoft security updates for Visual Studio when released; ensure principle of least privilege for Visual Studio installations and limit local user permissions where possible.

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 2022Application
Affected:>= 17.8.0, < 17.8.20>= 17.10.0, < 17.10.13>= 17.12.0, < 17.12.7

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. Confirm Visual Studio 2022 installation
    Open Programs and Features in Control Panel and look for 'Microsoft Visual Studio 2022' in the list of installed programs, or check for the presence of the Visual Studio 2022 installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\)
    Affected if Visual Studio 2022 is not present on the system, then the system is not affected by this specific vulnerability
  2. Determine the installed Visual Studio 2022 version
    Open Visual Studio, go to Help > About Microsoft Visual Studio to view the version number, or locate the 'devenv.exe' file in the Visual Studio installation folder and check its properties for the version
    Affected if Unable to determine the installed version of Visual Studio 2022
  3. Compare version against affected ranges
    Review the version number against these three vulnerable ranges: 17.8.0 through 17.8.19, 17.10.0 through 17.10.12, and 17.12.0 through 17.12.6
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: >= 17.8.0 and < 17.8.20, OR >= 17.10.0 and < 17.10.13, OR >= 17.12.0 and < 17.12.7

The environment is affected if Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8.0-17.8.19, 17.10.0-17.10.12, or 17.12.0-17.12.6 is installed and the attacker already has local access to the system.

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 17.8.20 / 17.10.13 / 17.12.7 or later
Fixed in 17.8.2017.10.1317.12.7
Interim mitigation

Apply Microsoft security updates for Visual Studio when released; ensure principle of least privilege for Visual Studio installations and limit local user permissions where possible.

Recommended fix High confidence

Visual Studio 2022 version 17.8.20, 17.10.13, or 17.12.7 (or later in each respective release line)

  1. Open Visual Studio and go to Help > Microsoft Visual Studio > About Microsoft Visual Studio to check the current version number
  2. Close all Visual Studio instances completely
  3. Download the updated Visual Studio 2022 installer from the official Microsoft Visual Studio downloads page (visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads)
  4. Run the installer and select 'Update' for your existing Visual Studio 2022 installation
  5. Choose the specific updated version (17.8.20, 17.10.13, or 17.12.7 or later) and proceed with the installation
  6. After installation completes, restart your computer to ensure all components are properly updated
  7. Verify the update by opening Visual Studio and confirming the version number reflects the patched release
Caveat Standard Visual Studio update - no major breaking changes expected; however, some extensions may require updates after major version changes

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

Fix this in Visual Studio 2022 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
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2025-29802 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