CVE-2025-49384
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 · uneditedTrend Micro Security 17.8 (Consumer) is vulnerable to a link following local privilege escalation vulnerability that could allow a local attacker to unintentionally delete privileged Trend Micro files including its own.
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 confidenceTrend Micro Security 17.8 (Consumer) contains a link following local privilege escalation vulnerability where an attacker can exploit symlink or hardlink manipulation to delete privileged Trend Micro files, potentially including the security product's own files. This allows a local unprivileged user to elevate privileges by causing the security software to delete files it owns or has privileged access to.
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= 17.8CVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 installed Trend Micro Security versionOpen Trend Micro Security main interface and navigate to Help > About, or check Programs and Features in Control Panel for 'Trendmicro Maximum Security 2022' with version 17.8Affected if Version shown is 17.8 (Maximum Security 2022)
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Verify Trend Micro program directory permissionsRight-click the Trend Micro installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\) and check Security permissions. Verify if Users group or unprivileged accounts have Write or Create Files permissionsAffected if Non-admin users have Write or Create permissions on Trend Micro program folders
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Check for symlink/hardlink creation capabilityOpen Command Prompt as a standard (non-admin) user and attempt to create a test symlink or hardlink within the Trend Micro directory using 'mklink' or 'fsutil hardlink create' commandsAffected if Symlink or hardlink creation succeeds for non-admin users in Trend Micro directories
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Verify Trend Micro Security service is runningOpen Services.msc and check if Trend Micro Security service is active, or run 'sc query' for related Trend Micro servicesAffected if Trend Micro Security services are currently running
User is affected if they have Trend Micro Maximum Security 2022 version 17.8 installed AND unprivileged local users can create symlinks or hardlinks within Trend Micro program directories.
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 dataApply vendor patch when available; in the interim, restrict local user permissions to prevent untrusted users from creating symlinks/hardlinks in Trend Micro directories and monitor for suspicious file deletion activity.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,464.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-49384 — 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-2025-49384 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