Windows OLE Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Security Vulnerability

Released: Jan 14, 2025

Last updated: Jan 22, 2025

Assigning CNA
Microsoft
CVE.org link
CVE-2025-21298
Impact
Remote Code Execution
Max Severity
Critical
Weakness
CVSS Source
Microsoft
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Please see Common Vulnerability Scoring System for more information on the definition of these metrics.

Exploitability

The following table provides an exploitability assessment for this vulnerability at the time of original publication.

Publicly disclosed
No
Exploited
No
Exploitability assessment
Exploitation More Likely

Workarounds

Use Microsoft Outlook to reduce the risk of users opening RTF Files from unknown or untrusted sources

To help protect against this vulnerability, we recommend users read email messages in plain text format.

For guidance on how to configure Microsoft Outlook to read all standard mail in plain text, please refer to Read email messages in plain text.

Impact of workaround: Email messages that are viewed in plain text format will not contain pictures, specialized fonts, animations, or other rich content. In addition, the following behavior may be experienced:

  • The changes are applied to the preview pane and to open messages.
  • Pictures become attachments so that they are not lost.
  • Because the message is still in Rich Text or HTML format in the store, the object model (custom code solutions) may behave unexpectedly.

FAQ

How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability?

In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted email to the victim. Exploitation of the vulnerability might involve either a victim opening a specially crafted email with an affected version of Microsoft Outlook software, or a victim's Outlook application displaying a preview of a specially crafted email . This could result in the attacker executing remote code on the victim's machine.

What is OLE?

Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) is a technology that allows embedding and linking to documents and other objects. For more information please visit: Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Data Structures.

Acknowledgements

  • Jmini, Rotiple, D4m0n with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative
Microsoft recognizes the efforts of those in the security community who help us protect customers through coordinated vulnerability disclosure. See Acknowledgements for more information.

Security Updates

To determine the support lifecycle for your software, see the Microsoft Support Lifecycle.

Release date Descending

Disclaimer

The information provided in the Microsoft Knowledge Base is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Microsoft disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply.

Revisions

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