CVE-2025-71212
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 · uneditedA link following vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One scan engine could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges on affected installations. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.
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 link following (symlink) vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One scan engine. An attacker with low-privileged code execution can create or manipulate symbolic links in locations processed by the scan engine, causing the engine to follow those links and perform operations on files/directories it otherwise would not have access to, leading to local privilege escalation.
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< 14.0.0.14136< 14.0.20315CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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 installed Apex One versionCheck the installed version via registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\Apex One\CurrentVersion or by running 'C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Apex One\ofcsum.exe -v' if availableAffected if Installed version is below 14.0.0.14136 or below 14.0.20315 (compare against both thresholds)
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Verify scan engine component is presentCheck if the scan engine service exists: look for 'Trend Micro Apex One NT Listener' service via 'sc query' command, or verify the presence of scan engine binaries in C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Apex One\PCCSRV or subdirectoriesAffected if Scan engine is installed and active (vulnerability only applies if the scan engine component is present)
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Examine scan engine temp directory permissionsLocate the scan engine temp directories (typically under C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Apex One\PCCSRV\Temp or %TEMP%\~TMSS) and check ACLs with 'icacls <directory>' for weak permissions allowing low-privileged user modificationAffected if Temp directories are writable by non-admin users (vulnerability requires attacker ability to create/manipulate symlinks)
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Audit for suspicious symlinks in scan directoriesRun 'mklink' listings or scan for symlinks in scan engine directories using 'Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Path "C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Apex One" | Where-Object { $_.LinkType -eq "SymbolicLink" }' in PowerShellAffected if Unexpected symbolic links exist in scan engine directories that were not created by the security product
Environment is affected if Apex One version falls below 14.0.0.14136 or 14.0.20315 AND the scan engine is active AND temp directories have weak permissions allowing symlink manipulation by low-privileged users.
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.
dbcve · scoped14.0.0.1413614.0.20315
Apply the vendor patch when available. In the interim, restrict file system permissions on scan engine directories and monitor for unauthorized symlink creation in those locations.
Upgrade to Apex One version 14.0.0.14136 or higher (or 14.0.20315 or higher depending on your release track)
- 1. Identify the current installed version of Trend Micro Apex One on the target system.
- 2. If the installed version is below 14.0.0.14136 or below 14.0.20315, plan for an upgrade.
- 3. Download the latest version of Trend Micro Apex One from the official Trend Micro download center or your licensed support portal.
- 4. Before applying the upgrade, ensure you have a complete backup of the system and relevant data.
- 5. Apply the upgrade following Trend Micro's standard upgrade procedures for Apex One.
- 6. After upgrade, verify the new version is 14.0.0.14136 or higher, or 14.0.20315 or higher.
- 7. Confirm the scan engine is functioning properly post-upgrade.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- 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-2025-71212 — 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-2025-71212 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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