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Maximum Security 2022Application · Trendmicro

CVE-2025-49385

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-06-17
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Trend 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 confidence

Trend Micro Security 17.8 (Consumer) contains a link following vulnerability that allows a local attacker to manipulate symbolic links to cause the security software to delete privileged files it owns. This local privilege escalation occurs due to improper validation of file paths before deletion operations, potentially enabling a low-privileged user to cause deletion of critical Trend Micro program files.

MitigationApply the vendor patch when released by Trend Micro. In the interim, restrict local user access to directories where Trend Micro stores temporary or configurable files, and monitor for unauthorized file deletion attempts.

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
Maximum Security 2022Application
Affected:= 17.8

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
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 checks

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

  1. Identify installed Trend Micro Security version
    Open Trend Micro Security main interface, go to Help > About, or check Programs and Features in Control Panel for 'Trendmicro Maximum Security 2022' version number
    Affected if Version shows 17.8 (specifically the 2022 edition)
  2. Locate Trend Micro Security installation directory
    Check default installation paths: C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Maximum Security\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\Maximum Security\
    Affected if Installation directory exists and contains tmdsrv.exe or other Trend Micro executable files
  3. Verify Trend Micro Security Service is running
    Open Services console (services.msc) and look for 'Trend Micro Security Service' or 'Trend Micro Proxy Service', or run tasklist | findstr "Trend" in command prompt
    Affected if Trend Micro security service is actively running on the system
  4. Check permissions on Trend Micro program directories
    Right-click the installation directory > Properties > Security tab. Verify which local users or groups have Write or Modify permissions to program folders
    Affected if Low-privileged users have Write or Modify access to Trend Micro program directories (this enables the symbolic link attack)
  5. Audit symbolic link creation permissions
    Run 'whoami /priv' in command prompt and check if 'Create symbolic links' privilege is enabled, or check if users can create symlinks in writable directories
    Affected if Non-admin users can create symbolic links in directories where Trend Micro writes temporary files

A system is affected if it runs Trend Micro Maximum Security 2022 version 17.8 AND has vulnerable permission settings allowing low-privileged users to manipulate symlinks in Trend Micro temp/config directories.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the vendor patch when released by Trend Micro. In the interim, restrict local user access to directories where Trend Micro stores temporary or configurable files, and monitor for unauthorized file deletion attempts.

Fix this in Maximum Security 2022 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,970
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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-2025-49385 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
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