CVE-2025-59294: Windows Taskbar Live Preview Information Disclosure and Patch Guide

Microsoft’s advisory that assigns CVE‑2025‑59294 to a Windows Taskbar Live Preview information‑disclosure issue is a reminder that even seemingly cosmetic UI features can leak sensitive data when combined with physical access or weak endpoint physical security.

Background / Overview​

The vulnerability identified as CVE‑2025‑59294 is classified by Microsoft as an information disclosure that affects the Windows Taskbar Live preview functionality. The public registry entries show the CVE published on October 14, 2025 and list the weakness under CWE‑200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor, with a low CVSS v3.1 base score reported at 2.1.
At a high level, the issue allows an attacker with physical proximity or access to a Windows device to view information surfaced by Taskbar Live previews that should not be visible without authentication or explicit user interaction. The public summaries emphasize that this is not a remote code execution or remote network exposure; rather, it’s a local/physical information‑disclosure vector that can be exploited without elevated system privileges but with physical access or device control.
Microsoft’s Security Update Guide provides the canonical advisory and the KB mapping for remediation, but the vendor’s interactive pages sometimes require a JavaScript‑capable browser to view full, per‑SKU KB tables. Administrators should therefore consult the MSRC entry directly from a managed browser or use the Microsoft Update Catalog/WSUS feeds for exact package names and build mappings when applying fixes. Community analysis of related compositor and UI vulnerabilities reinforces this practice: vendor entries remain the authoritative source for KB→build mapping.

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Why Taskbar Live Preview Matters​

Taskbar Live preview is a convenience feature that shows thumbnail previews, live tile snippets, or quick content summaries when a user hovers over or requests previews from the taskbar. Because these previews may render application content or snippets of documents, they inherently cross the boundary between background system UI and user data presentation.

• The feature improves productivity and workflow visibility for end users.
• It also creates an interface that occasionally renders content originating from apps, notifications, or background processes.
• When a bug affects how that content is gated, filtered, or redacted, the result can be the unintended disclosure of sensitive information to anyone who can see or interact with the preview surface.

Security researchers and vendor advisories have repeatedly observed that UI presentation layers — especially those that aggregate or summarize application state — are often overlooked in threat models. That makes Taskbar Live a nontrivial attack surface despite its apparent innocuousness.

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What the Advisory States (Technical Summary)​

The public entries for CVE‑2025‑59294 describe the core issue as an exposure of sensitive information through Windows Taskbar Live previews that can be observed by an unauthorized actor with physical access. The attack does not require privileged credentials and Microsoft’s listed attack vector indicates local/physical conditions. The CVSS vector published for this CVE maps to AV/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N, reflecting a low severity rating consistent with a confidentiality‑only impact that requires user interaction or physical proximity.
This classification places the bug in a familiar category: it’s not a memory‑corruption primitive that yields remote RCE, but it is operationally meaningful because leaked thumbnails, preview text, or notification fragments can contain credentials, personally identifiable information (PII), or other secrets in high‑security environments.
Two practical implications flow from the advisory:

• Organizations with shared desktops, unattended machines, or public kiosks are more exposed because physical proximity is easier to achieve.
• Environments that combine previewing (for example, mail preview panes or automatic thumbnailing) with lax physical controls amplify the risk.

Community guidance for similar information‑disclosure bugs stresses that defenders should treat confidentiality‑only bugs seriously when the leaked data could be leveraged in follow‑on attacks (credential harvesting, social engineering, or targeted reconnaissance).

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Attack Scenarios and Real‑World Risk​

CVE‑2025‑59294 has two practical attack scenarios worth inventorying:

• Short‑range visual snooping: An attacker standing or sitting near an unlocked workstation can cause a preview to render (or wait for an automatic preview) and observe sensitive content without touching the keyboard. This is the classic shoulder‑surfing model exacerbated by UI previews. The vulnerability lowers the bar by making previews reveal data that should be protected.
• Local device misuse: A malicious individual with brief, unauthenticated access (for example, a courier, an employee with temporary access, or a visitor to a shared workspace) can trigger previews to collect exposed information. Because the bug does not require network access, it bypasses many remote detection controls.

Although public feeds have not (at the time of publication) reported PoC code or in‑the‑wild leveraging of this exact CVE, the window for opportunistic abuse opens immediately after disclosure and before full fleet patching. Information leaks are powerful primitives: even a single piece of exposed data can catalyze phishing, credential reuse, or targeted social attacks. Community advisories emphasize this chain logic from leakage to escalation and note that defenders should prioritize any leak that could reveal authentication material or internal artifacts.

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Exploit Complexity and Pre‑Conditions​

From the vendor metadata and independent trackers:

• Exploitation complexity: Low. The attack requires physical presence or local interaction, but not advanced technical skills or code execution. The attacker’s main requirement is proximity and the ability to provoke or view a preview.
• Privileges required: None — an unauthenticated observer may succeed if the device is unlocked or configured to show previews to the lock screen (some Windows settings can surface limited previews even when locked). This configuration nuance is crucial when assessing exposure.
• Remote exploitation: Not applicable. The advisory lists the vector as physical/local, not network‑triggerable. That reduces the immediate threat of widespread, remote automated exploitation, but increases the operational risk to shared and public devices.

Given these characteristics, this CVE sits at the intersection of application security and physical security: defenders must combine software patching with changes to physical‑device management and policy.

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Detection, Telemetry, and Incident Response​

Detecting an information‑disclosure event based on Taskbar Live previews is intrinsically difficult because the adversary action is largely observational rather than mediated through system logs.
Practical detection and response guidance:

• Correlate session and physical‑access logs: If you have badge‑in/door logs or camera footage for high‑risk locations, correlate those with sensitive activity windows to detect suspicious short‑duration access patterns. This shifts detection out of the endpoint and into physical controls.
• Monitor user‑session locking behavior: Use endpoint telemetry to alert on sessions that remain unlocked for extended periods or machines that repeatedly display previews without concurrent user input. Automated endpoints can flag long idle times with periodic preview render events.
• Audit preview settings at scale: Inventory policies that allow previews on lock screens, in thin‑client sessions, or in shared kiosk modes. Collect configuration drift telemetry and treat deviations as high priority to remediate.
• For suspected data exposure: Collect forensic artifacts (event logs, WER crash dumps if any UI components misbehave during preview) and perform a scope assessment of what application content or notification data may have been visible or cached by preview rendering. Even though this bug is primarily observational, identifying what types of data were reachable is key to assessing downstream risk.

Because the incident vector is physical observation, traditional EDR indicators (process injection, privilege escalation traces) are unlikely to exist. The hunting posture therefore must include configuration and policy telemetry, physical access logs, and user behavior analytics.

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Mitigation and Patch Guidance​

The single most important countermeasure is to apply Microsoft’s security update(s) that address CVE‑2025‑59294 as soon as they are available and validated against your environment. Independent trackers and advisories note that Microsoft published the advisory and the associated updates on October 14, 2025 — deploy the vendor KB(s) promptly and verify installation via your management console.
If an immediate fleet‑wide patch is not feasible, implement compensating controls:

• Enforce automatic session locking: Require screens to lock on idle after a short timeout (30–60 seconds) for high‑risk devices; make lock screens require MFA where possible. This reduces the window for casual shoulder‑surfing.
• Disable previews on lock screens and public kiosks: Remove or restrict Taskbar Live preview features in kiosk modes, shared workstations, or devices used in open office spaces. Review group policy settings that control preview rendering and lock‑screen behavior.
• Harden physical access: Strengthen visitor policies, require escorts for devices in sensitive areas, and limit unattended device exposure in public zones. Physical security mitigations are particularly effective for this class of vulnerability.
• User training and communications: Remind staff not to leave unlocked workstations unattended, and to use full‑screen or private modes when displaying sensitive material. Simple behavior changes reduce exposure while patches are deployed.
• Validate preview behavior post‑patch: After installing the vendor update, test the Taskbar Live preview behavior in representative configurations (locked, unlocked, remote desktop, VDI) to confirm that the remediation removes the exposure without breaking legitimate workflows.

Implementation checklist (prioritized):

• Identify all devices that run Taskbar Live preview functionality (desktop SKUs, shared terminals, kiosk images).
• Retrieve the exact vendor KB(s) for each affected build from Microsoft’s Security Update Guide or the Update Catalog and stage patches in a pilot ring.
• Deploy patches to high‑risk hosts (public kiosks, reception-area machines, shared lab workstations) first.
• Enforce lock‑screen timeouts and disable previews on lock screens via policy.
• Monitor for configuration drift and verify patch installation across the estate.

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Operational Risk Assessment​

Although CVSS scores this vulnerability as low, the operational risk varies by environment:

• High risk: public kiosks, reception PCs, shared classrooms, clinic terminals, or any device that is routinely accessible to external visitors or non‑trusted users. In these contexts, the vulnerability materially increases the chance of exposure of patient data, customer PII, or proprietary information.
• Medium risk: open office desks and hot‑desking environments where employees routinely leave machines unlocked for short intervals.
• Low risk: tightly controlled data centers and servers that do not present a UI or do not run interactive desktop features.

The critical takeaway is that a low CVSS score does not equate to no operational impact. Organizations must prioritize remediation for devices that are physically accessible or where preview content could reveal high‑value secrets. Community playbooks for UI/preview leaks consistently prioritize kiosk and shared environments first for this reason.

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Strengths and Limitations of Public Reporting​

What we can confidently verify:

• The CVE exists, is listed by Microsoft’s update guide, and public trackers reflect the vendor’s classification as information disclosure with a published date of October 14, 2025.
• The attack vector is local/physical and does not enable remote code execution; the primary impact is confidentiality.

Limitations and gaps:

• Microsoft’s interactive MSRC pages often require a dynamic browser to extract the KB→build mapping. If your automation or patching pipeline relies on third‑party scrapers, verify that the KB IDs match the exact builds in your inventory before deployment. Community guidance repeatedly flags this operational friction point.
• Public technical details about exactly which data can leak under which conditions (for example, whether previews on the lock screen are affected, or whether desktop thumbnails versus live notification snippets are vulnerable) are often intentionally slim in initial advisories. Vendors omit proving exploit details to avoid accelerating abuse; defenders must therefore assume the worst until verified.

Because of these limits, defenders should combine rapid patching with conservative mitigations and configuration hardening to shrink the exposure window.

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Final Recommendations for Windows Administrators and Security Teams​

• Patch first: Retrieve the official MSRC advisory entry for CVE‑2025‑59294 and apply the vendor KB(s) appropriate for each Windows build. Use the Microsoft Update Catalog, WSUS, or your enterprise management system to ensure correct package selection.
• Lockdown previews: Disable or restrict Taskbar Live / preview rendering in group policy for kiosk and shared workstation OUs until patches are validated. Configure lock screen behavior to avoid showing previews to unauthenticated observers.
• Harden physical security: Reinforce badge‑controlled access, visitor escorts, and rules that prohibit unattended unlocked devices in public areas. Physical controls are the most direct mitigation for a physically exploitable information leak.
• Audit and monitor: Add policy telemetry for preview settings, enforce short lock timeouts for high‑risk devices, and tune SSO and credential caching policies to minimize sensitive data exposed in UI surfaces.
• Communicate: Send a concise advisory to end users explaining the risk (don’t leave devices unlocked) and the temporary mitigations until patching is complete. Simple, clear UX guidance reduces opportunistic exposure.

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Conclusion​

CVE‑2025‑59294 is a notable example of how UI convenience features can create real security problems when access controls and presentation logic fail to account for adversarial observation. While the technical severity score is low and the vector is local/physical, the operational impact can be significant in environments where devices are shared or physically accessible.
The path forward is clear: apply Microsoft’s patch promptly, harden preview and lock‑screen settings for public and shared devices, strengthen physical controls, and treat this as a reminder that endpoint security includes both software updates and physical‑access posture. Community guidance and incident playbooks for UI and graphics‑stack disclosures converge on this combined approach: vendors supply the fix, but defenders must apply it and shrink the exposure window through policies, monitoring, and physical security.

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Source: MSRC Security Update Guide - Microsoft Security Response Center

 

[ChatGPT]

Microsoft has cataloged CVE-2025-59294, a Windows Taskbar Live Preview information‑disclosure vulnerability, and published vendor guidance that urges rapid mapping of the CVE to the appropriate KBs and immediate remediation in physically accessible, shared, or kiosk environments.

Background​

Taskbar Live Preview is a long‑standing Windows UX feature that renders thumbnail previews, live snippets, and quick content summaries when a user hovers over or otherwise requests previews from the taskbar. These previews occasionally render application content, notification text, or thumbnail images that are normally available only when a user is actively interacting with an application. Because of that design, presentation-layer bugs in Taskbar Live Preview can inadvertently surface sensitive information to nearby observers.
Microsoft’s Security Update Guide lists CVE‑2025‑59294 as an information‑disclosure (CWE‑200) issue affecting the Taskbar Live preview functionality, with the public advisory published on October 14, 2025. Public trackers and vendor metadata characterize the vulnerability’s attack vector as local/physical and the impact as confidentiality‑only.

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What the advisory says — quick technical summary​

• The vulnerability is an information disclosure that can expose previewed content to an unauthorized observer without elevated privileges.
• The attack vector is local/physical — exploitation requires proximity or brief local access to the target machine.
• The vendor’s published CVSS v3.1 vector for this entry maps to a low base score (reported around 2.1) consistent with AV/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N in public feeds. That scoring reflects a confidentiality‑only impact that requires local interaction.

These core facts mean the bug does not enable remote code execution or network‑triggered compromise by itself, but it materially increases the risk of data exposure where devices are physically accessible or where previewed content can include sensitive fragments (credentials, email subject lines, patient data, or PII).

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Why Taskbar Live Preview matters as an attack surface​

Taskbar previews blur the boundary between background UI and user content presentation. They are convenient productivity features, but their convenience is precisely what makes them security relevant:

• Previews can show snippets of active documents, email subject lines, calendar details, notification text or thumbnail images that originate from running applications. A preview that exposes a short password, OTP, or an internal ticket number can be enough to bootstrap follow‑on attacks such as phishing or lateral reconnaissance.
• Presentation‑layer bugs are often overlooked in threat models compared with memory corruption or privilege escalation flaws. When the gating logic for previews fails, it can result in inadvertent data leakage even without code execution.
• Shared and public devices amplify the operational impact: kiosks, reception PCs, shared lab workstations, and hot‑desking machines are prime targets because physical access is easy and observer anonymity is higher.

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Attack scenarios: realistic threat models​

Two practical, high‑probability attack scenarios should guide defenders’ risk triage:

1. Short‑range visual snooping​

An attacker standing close to an unlocked workstation can provoke a live preview (or wait for an automatic preview) and read sensitive content displayed in the thumbnail or notification fragment. The vulnerability lowers the bar for shoulder‑surfing: the information appears without requiring authorization beyond local access.

2. Local device misuse by transient actors​

A brief, unauthenticated access by a visitor, courier, or a contractor can be sufficient. Because the attack needs no network access and no privileged credentials, a malicious but non‑technical person can collect exposed information from an unattended machine or a shared workstation. This scenario is particularly dangerous in reception areas, clinics, and classrooms.
Operational takeaway: although the CVSS base score is low, the contextual impact can be high in environments where exposed snippets have outsized value.

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Exploitability, prerequisites and public disclosure status​

• Exploit complexity: Low, in the sense that the attacker needs only proximity and the ability to provoke or view a preview; no advanced code‑writing skills are required for the observational exploitation model.
• Privileges required: None for visual observation; the device need only be unlocked or configured in a way that surfaces previews to unauthenticated observers. Certain preview settings can surface limited content even on the lock screen — that configuration nuance materially changes exposure.
• PoC / in‑the‑wild reports: As of the vendor advisory and immediate public reporting, there were no credible, widely‑distributed proof‑of‑concept code samples or verified in‑the‑wild exploitation reports for CVE‑2025‑59294. That said, disclosure on a public advisory often narrows the window for opportunistic abuse because attackers can manually reproduce observation techniques quickly after reading the advisory. Treat public‑facing technical detail gaps with caution.

Important verification note: Microsoft’s Security Update Guide (the MSRC advisory) is the canonical source for KB→build mapping. Community mirrors and third‑party trackers may lag or render abbreviated metadata; administrators should confirm exact package identifiers and affected builds directly in the MSRC page or the Microsoft Update Catalog. The vendor’s interactive pages sometimes require a JavaScript‑capable browser to expose the full KB mapping.

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Detection and incident response challenges​

Detecting this class of information‑disclosure is intrinsically difficult because the adversary’s action is primarily observational rather than executed via network traffic or malware that generates EDR signals.
Recommended detection primitives and response practices:

• Correlate physical access logs (badge entries, camera footage) with windows of potential exposure. Because the attack relies on proximity and observation, physical access telemetry is often more practical than endpoint logs for attribution.
• Monitor session locking behavior and endpoint telemetry for unusually long unlocked sessions on shared machines or repeated preview events on idle endpoints. This can surface risky configuration drift.
• Collect forensic artifacts for suspected exposures: event logs, Windows Error Reporting dumps, and any available UI or session dumps to identify which applications or notifications were visible during the exposure window. While these artifacts won’t show “preview was observed,” they help determine what content could have been visible.

Because conventional EDR will rarely log passive observation, defenders must rely more heavily on policy telemetry, configuration inventory, and physical controls for both detection and remediation.

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Mitigation and patch guidance — practical steps​

The single strongest countermeasure is to apply Microsoft’s security update(s) for CVE‑2025‑59294 to the affected SKUs. Administrators should:

• Retrieve the MSRC advisory entry for CVE‑2025‑59294 and extract the exact KB IDs for each affected Windows build. Use the Microsoft Update Catalog or WSUS feeds where direct MSRC scraping is impractical.
• Stage and pilot the updates in a small ring that exercises core UI workflows (locked/unlocked sessions, remote desktop, VDI, kiosk modes), then deploy to high‑risk hosts (public kiosks, reception PCs, shared lab workstations).
• Validate post‑patch behavior: test Taskbar Live preview rendering in the representative configurations to confirm the remediation covers locked, unlocked, remote, and VDI sessions without breaking legitimate workflows.

If immediate patching is not possible, implement conservative compensating controls:

• Enforce stricter automatic session locking (short timeouts, 30–60 seconds in high‑risk zones) and enable stronger lock‑screen authentication (MFA where available).
• Disable Taskbar Live previews in Group Policy for kiosk and shared workstation OUs until patches are applied. This reduces the windows where previews can be observed.
• Harden physical controls in sensitive spaces: require escorts, reduce unattended device exposure in public areas, and audit visitor access policies. Physical mitigations are often the fastest way to reduce risk for physically exploitable bugs.

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Prioritization: who should patch first?​

Patch triage should be driven by exposure and the potential value of leaked content:

• High priority: kiosks, reception terminals, clinic desktops, shared lab machines, classroom PCs, and any endpoint frequently accessed by untrusted visitors. These devices offer the easiest physical access to an attacker.
• Medium priority: open‑plan office machines, hot‑desking endpoints, and shared conference room PCs where staff may leave machines unlocked.
• Lower priority: locked data‑center hosts, headless servers, and any system without a GUI or without interactive user sessions. These systems typically do not run Taskbar Live Preview and therefore present little to no exposure for this specific bug.

Operational note: a low CVSS score does not mean no operational impact. Context matters: a single exposed password or ticket on a kiosk can catalyze a far larger compromise.

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Communications and user guidance​

Because detection is hard and patches may take time to roll out, concise user communications help reduce opportunistic exposure:

• Tell staff to never leave workstations unlocked in public zones and to lock screens when stepping away.
• Instruct teams handling sensitive content (HR, clinical staff, legal) to avoid displaying confidential information on shared or public machines until patched.
• Provide a short, clear explanation of temporary mitigations (lock timeouts, disabling previews) and the planned patch timeline so users understand the operational tradeoffs.

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Analysis: strengths, limitations, and unanswered questions​

Strengths of the public reporting​

• Vendor acknowledgement and listing in Microsoft’s Security Update Guide provides a high degree of confidence in the CVE’s existence and intended remediation path. That authoritative mapping is the basis for enterprise patch planning.
• Public summaries correctly frame the bug as a confidentiality problem rather than a remote‑execution or privilege‑escalation flaw; that distinction shapes both triage and mitigation priorities.

Limitations and open technical gaps​

• The initial advisories and third‑party trackers intentionally omit low‑level exploit primitives and specific rendering conditions (for example, the precise preview types affected — lock screen vs. unlocked thumbnails). Those omissions are common, but they leave defenders to assume the worst until more detailed post‑mortems appear. Flag: treat these gaps with caution.
• Microsoft’s MSRC pages are dynamic and sometimes require a JavaScript‑capable browser to extract complete KB→build mappings; automated scrapers and third‑party mirrors can lag. Administrators must confirm package IDs directly in the Update Guide or Update Catalog.

What remains unverifiable​

• At the time of the advisory, there were no public PoCs or verified in‑the‑wild exploit reports for CVE‑2025‑59294. That absence should not be interpreted as safety — opportunistic abuse can follow shortly after disclosure, especially for an observational vector that requires no code development. Flag: assume potential for opportunistic misuse until fleets are patched.

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Checklist for administrators (prioritized)​

• Locate MSRC advisory for CVE‑2025‑59294 and record KB IDs for your builds. Use Microsoft Update Catalog if needed.
• Pilot vendor updates in a controlled ring that exercises UI/preview workflows. Validate behavior in locked, unlocked, RDP/VDI, and kiosk scenarios.
• Deploy patches to high‑risk devices first (kiosks, reception PCs, shared workstations).
• If unable to patch immediately, disable Taskbar Live previews via Group Policy for vulnerable OUs and shorten lock‑screen timeouts.
• Communicate the risk to end users with concise guidance on locking screens and avoiding sensitive displays on shared machines.
• Correlate physical access logs with sensitive windows for post‑exposure assessment, and gather forensic artifacts where exposures are suspected.

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Final assessment and conclusion​

CVE‑2025‑59294 is an important reminder that UX convenience features can be an operational security liability when presentation logic fails to enforce access boundaries. While the bug’s technical severity (CVSS base score) and vector (local/physical) indicate a low systemic risk relative to remote RCEs, the operational risk is higher for any environment with physically accessible machines or where previews surface high‑value secrets.
The most prudent course is straightforward: treat the advisory as authoritative, map the CVE to the correct KBs in Microsoft’s Security Update Guide or the Update Catalog, and prioritize patching in shared and public environments. Where immediate patching is impractical, deploy compensating controls — disable previews, enforce short lock timeouts, and harden physical access policies — while monitoring for configuration drift and possible exposure windows.
Administrators and security teams should also remain vigilant for follow‑on technical write‑ups or proof‑of‑concept releases that clarify the exact preview conditions affected; until then, conservative mitigations combined with rapid patching offer the best mix of practicality and security.
Conclusion: CVE‑2025‑59294 is low‑complexity to exploit in practice but potentially high‑impact depending on context. The problem it illustrates is familiar — user‑facing conveniences can leak secrets — and the corrective path is equally familiar and actionable: identify affected systems, patch promptly, and reduce the attack surface through simple policy changes while rollout completes.

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Source: MSRC Security Update Guide - Microsoft Security Response Center