CVE-2025-31645
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 · uneditedUncontrolled search path for some System Event Log Viewer Utility software for all versions within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege. Unprivileged software adversary with an authenticated user combined with a high complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are present without special internal knowledge and requires active user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.
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 confidenceThis is a DLL hijacking/uncontrolled search path vulnerability in the System Event Log Viewer Utility. The application loads DLLs from an attacker-controllable location, allowing an authenticated user to place a malicious DLL that gets loaded with elevated privileges, achieving local privilege escalation.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify System Event Log Viewer Utility installationCheck for the presence of event log viewer executables - look for eventvwr.msc, or search for executables named 'event viewer', 'syslog viewer', or similar in Program Files directories. On Windows, run 'where eventvwr.msc' or check %SystemRoot%\System32\eventvwr.mscAffected if The System Event Log Viewer Utility is installed on the system
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Verify if the utility runs with elevated privilegesLaunch the event log viewer utility and check its process token. Use Task Manager or 'tasklist /V' to view process integrity level, or run 'whoami /groups' while the utility is open to see if it has elevated group membershipsAffected if The utility runs with elevated or administrative privileges
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Check for uncontrolled DLL search pathsUse a tool like Process Monitor (ProcMon) from Sysinternals to trace DLL loading when the event viewer starts. Filter by 'Operation' = 'Load Image' or 'CreateFile' looking for DLLs. Check if any DLL loads succeed from user-writable locations like the current directory, temp folders, or directories writable by low-privileged usersAffected if The utility loads DLLs from directories that authenticated users can control or write to
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Inspect DLL search order configurationCheck the application manifest and executable properties. Run 'dumpbin /dependents <path to event viewer exe>' to list dependencies. Examine if the application uses safe DLL search mode - check registry key 'HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\SafeDllSearchMode' is set to 1Affected if Safe DLL search mode is disabled or the application explicitly adds unsafe paths to the DLL search order
A system is affected if the System Event Log Viewer Utility is present, runs with elevated privileges, and loads DLLs from attacker-controllable locations that authenticated users can write to.
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.
From vendor dataImplement secure DLL loading by using full path specifications for all DLL dependencies, removing current directory from the DLL search path, and/or using the SETDLLDIRECTORY Windows API to restrict DLL loading to trusted system directories.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-31645 — 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-2025-31645 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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- 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
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