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Windows 11 22h2Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-2025-29971

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.0.22621.5335 / 10.0.22631.5335 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
High EPSS Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Out-of-bounds read in Web Threat Defense (WTD.sys) allows an unauthorized attacker to deny service over a network.

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

An out-of-bounds read vulnerability exists in the Web Threat Defense kernel driver (WTD.sys) that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to trigger a denial of service condition by sending specially crafted network requests that cause the driver to read memory outside allocated buffers.

MitigationApply vendor-provided patches for the affected Web Threat Defense software; if no patch is available, consider network-level filtering or disabling the WTD service as a temporary mitigation until an update can be deployed.

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
Windows 11 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22621.5335
Windows 11 23h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22631.5335
Windows 11 24h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.26100.4061

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 Windows 11 version and build
    Open Command Prompt or PowerShell and run 'winver' or 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"' to determine if the system runs Windows 11 and note the specific build number
    Affected if The system is running Windows 11 22h2, 23h2, or 24h2 with a build number below the thresholds (22621.5335, 22631.5335, or 26100.4061 respectively)
  2. Confirm WTD.sys driver presence
    Check if the Web Threat Defense driver exists by running 'sc query WTD' or looking for WTD.sys in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\
    Affected if The WTD service or driver is found on the system, making it a potential target for the vulnerability
  3. Verify Windows build against affected versions
    Run 'winver' to get exact build number, or use PowerShell 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion | Select-Object DisplayVersion, CurrentBuild, CurrentBuildNumber' to compare against affected version ranges
    Affected if The installed Windows 11 version is below 10.0.22621.5335 (22h2), 10.0.22631.5335 (23h2), or 10.0.26100.4061 (24h2)
  4. Check for Windows Updates
    Open Settings > Windows Update and check update history, or run 'powershell Get-HotFix' to see installed security updates
    Affected if The system is missing the specific KB patch that addresses CVE-2025-29971

A system is affected if it runs Windows 11 22h2/23h2/24h2 with a build below the specified thresholds AND has the WTD.sys driver present, as the out-of-bounds read can then be triggered by malicious network requests.

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 10.0.22621.5335 / 10.0.22631.5335 / 10.0.26100.4061 or later
Fixed in 10.0.22621.533510.0.22631.533510.0.26100.4061
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor-provided patches for the affected Web Threat Defense software; if no patch is available, consider network-level filtering or disabling the WTD service as a temporary mitigation until an update can be deployed.

Recommended fix High confidence

Windows 11 22h2 build 10.0.22621.5335 or later | Windows 11 23h2 build 10.0.22631.5335 or later | Windows 11 24h2 build 10.0.26100.4061 or later

  1. Open Windows Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update
  2. Click 'Check for updates' to download and install the latest security updates
  3. Verify the installation completed successfully by checking update history
  4. Confirm the OS build number meets or exceeds the fixed version for your Windows 11 edition (22h2: 10.0.22621.5335, 23h2: 10.0.22631.5335, 24h2: 10.0.26100.4061)
Caveat Standard Windows security update with no expected breaking changes; as with any system update, ensure backups exist before deploying in production

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

Fix this in Windows 11 22h2 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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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-2025-29971 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