Microsoft Office's Silent Threat: Unpacking CVE-2025-47994 Deserialization Vulnerability

Introduction

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, vulnerabilities within widely-used software like Microsoft Office pose significant threats to organizational security. CVE-2025-47994, a critical deserialization vulnerability, exemplifies this risk, enabling attackers to escalate privileges locally through seemingly innocuous documents. This vulnerability underscores the importance of vigilant patch management and user education in mitigating potential breaches.

Technical Information

CVE-2025-47994 stems from insecure deserialization processes (CWE-502) within Microsoft Office's document parsing architecture. When users open specially crafted documents, Office applications deserialize embedded objects without adequate validation. This oversight allows attackers to inject malicious serialized data, leading to memory corruption and arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges.

The attack vector is local, requiring user interaction—specifically, the opening of a malicious document. Once triggered, the vulnerability allows attackers to bypass standard user-mode restrictions, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive system resources and potentially achieving full system compromise.

Affected Microsoft Office versions include Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021, Office 2024, and Microsoft 365 Apps. The vulnerability's exploitation primarily involves phishing campaigns and malicious document distribution channels, leveraging social engineering tactics to entice users into opening compromised files.

Patch Information

Microsoft has released a security update addressing CVE-2025-47994. This update modifies how Microsoft Office processes deserialized data, ensuring only trusted data undergoes deserialization. By implementing stricter validation and handling mechanisms, the patch effectively mitigates the risk associated with deserializing untrusted data.

Users are strongly encouraged to apply this security update promptly to safeguard their systems from potential exploitation.

Affected Systems and Versions

The vulnerability specifically impacts the following Microsoft Office products:

Microsoft Office 2016
Microsoft Office 2019
Microsoft Office 2021
Microsoft Office 2024
Microsoft 365 Apps

All configurations of these versions processing serialized data are vulnerable.

Vendor Security History

Microsoft has historically encountered similar deserialization vulnerabilities within Office products, reflecting persistent architectural challenges. The vendor consistently demonstrates prompt patch response times, typically aligning with their monthly Patch Tuesday cycle. Despite this, the recurrence of deserialization flaws indicates ongoing security maturity challenges in legacy code management.

References

Source: This report was created using AI

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