CVE-2025-52521: Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Trend Micro Security 17.8

Overview

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has identified a significant vulnerability in Trend Micro Security 17.8 (Consumer). This flaw, cataloged as CVE-2025-52521, poses severe risks to the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of systems running the affected software. It involves a local privilege escalation vulnerability that, if successfully exploited, may allow a local attacker to unintentionally delete privileged Trend Micro files, including its own, leading to potential system compromise or data leakage.
Given the widespread use of Trend Micro Security solutions in consumer environments, this vulnerability could impact a significant user base. Businesses and individuals who use the affected version of this software must take immediate steps to address this vulnerability and ensure their systems’ security.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-52521
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS score)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System compromise or data leakage due to unintentional deletion of privileged Trend Micro files

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Trend Micro Security (Consumer) | 17.8

How the Exploit Works

The vulnerability arises from a flaw in Trend Micro Security’s handling of file permissions and symbolic links. A local attacker can manipulate symbolic links to redirect operations intended for critical system files to other files. If an attacker successfully tricks the system into deleting these files, it could lead to loss of critical data or potentially render the Trend Micro Security software inoperative.

Conceptual Example Code

Here is a
conceptual
example of how this vulnerability might be exploited using shell commands:

# Create a symbolic link to a privileged Trend Micro file
ln -s /path/to/privileged/trendmicro/file /path/to/attacker/controlled/location
# Trigger an operation that inadvertently deletes the linked file
rm /path/to/attacker/controlled/location

This sequence of commands would result in the deletion of the privileged Trend Micro file instead of the file at the attacker-controlled location.

Mitigation Guidance

Users are advised to apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation measure against potential exploitation of this vulnerability. These security mechanisms can detect and block suspicious or malicious activity, thus buying time for the proper patch to be released and applied.