Microsoft has published an advisory for CVE-2025-53801: an untrusted pointer dereference in the Windows Desktop Window Manager (DWM) Core Library that can be triggered by an authorized local user to elevate privileges on affected systems. The flaw resides in DWM’s memory handling and, when successfully abused, can convert a non-privileged local foothold into high‑privilege code execution inside a privileged UI/graphics process — a classic and dangerous local elevation-of-privilege (EoP) pattern that demands immediate attention from administrators and security teams.
Background / Overview
What DWM does and why it matters
The Desktop Window Manager (dwm.exe and related DWM libraries) is the Windows compositor responsible for window composition, desktop presentation, and interactions with GPU drivers and user sessions. It is a long‑running system component that frequently crosses process and kernel boundaries to orchestrate graphical output for interactive sessions. Because it runs with elevated context and handles complex object lifecycles for windows, surfaces, and GPU resources, memory‑management flaws in DWM often yield disproportionate results: crashes, information disclosure, or elevation of privilege when weaponized. Independent analysis of DWM vulnerabilities in 2024–2025 confirms the component’s attractiveness to both researchers and attackers.The vulnerability class: untrusted pointer dereference
CVE‑2025‑53801 is reported as an untrusted pointer dereference (CWE‑822). In practical terms, that means DWM’s code dereferences a pointer derived from untrusted or insufficiently validated input — a pointer that an attacker can influence to be NULL or point to attacker-controlled data. In kernel- or system‑level components, such dereferences can lead to crashes or, under the right conditions, become memory‑corruption primitives that enable code‑flow hijack or write‑what‑where primitives. Historically, DWM and adjacent graphics/UI subsystems have shown that those primitive outcomes frequently convert into reliable local EoP exploits when combined with heap grooming, timing/race control, or additional local primitives.What Microsoft’s advisory says (authoritative summary)
- Microsoft’s Security Update Guide (MSRC) lists CVE‑2025‑53801 as a DWM Core Library elevation of privilege issue; the vendor page is the canonical source for the definitive affected‑build mapping and the KB(s) that contain the fix. Because MSRC renders dynamically, administrators should consult the MSRC entry directly or use the Microsoft Update Catalog/WSUS feed to map the CVE to exact KB numbers for each Windows build. (msrc.microsoft.com, msrc.microsoft.com, msrc.microsoft.com, msrc.microsoft.com, cvedetails.com, nvd.nist.gov, Security Update Guide - Microsoft Security Response Center
