CVE-2025-69689
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 · uneditedThe Fan Control application V251 contains an improper privilege handling vulnerability in its Open File Dialog. The dialog processes user-supplied paths with elevated permissions, which can be exploited by a local attacker to perform actions with administrator-level privileges.
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 confidenceThe Fan Control application V251 has an improper privilege handling vulnerability in its Open File Dialog. This dialog runs with elevated/administrator permissions and processes user-supplied file paths without proper sanitization, allowing a local attacker to manipulate the dialog to perform actions with administrator-level privileges.
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
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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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Check if Fan Control application is installedLook for Fan Control in installed programs (Windows: Add/Remove Programs, Program Files, or use 'Get-ItemProperty' in PowerShell for registry entries under HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\)Affected if Fan Control application is present on the system
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Verify the installed version is V251Check the application version via its executable properties (right-click the .exe file, go to Details tab, or use PowerShell: (Get-Item 'C:\Path\To\FanControl.exe').VersionInfo.FileVersion)Affected if The installed version is V251 exactly, as only this version contains the vulnerability
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Check if application runs with elevated privilegesReview the application manifest or shortcut settings to determine if it is configured to run as administrator (right-click shortcut > Properties > Compatibility tab > 'Run this program as administrator' is checked, or check UAC settings)Affected if The application is configured or currently running with administrator/elevated privileges
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Verify Open File Dialog is accessible to local usersLaunch the Fan Control application and attempt to access the Open File Dialog feature (typically via File > Open or a toolbar button) while observing the process privileges in Task Manager (right-click the process > Run as administrator if needed to test)Affected if The Open File Dialog opens and operates with elevated/admin-level process tokens accessible to standard users
Your environment is affected if Fan Control V251 is installed and the application runs with elevated/administrator privileges, allowing the Open File Dialog to be manipulated with admin-level access.
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 dataFix the Open File Dialog to not process user-supplied paths with elevated permissions, or run the application with least-privilege principles and avoid unnecessary elevated permissions.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-69689 — 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-2025-69689 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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