CVE-2025-53149: Kernel Streaming WOW Thunk Service Driver Buffer Overflow Vulnerability

Overview

The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving, and one of the latest vulnerabilities to be discovered is CVE-2025-53149, which affects the Kernel Streaming WOW Thunk Service Driver. This vulnerability is significant because it allows an authorized attacker to exploit a heap-based buffer overflow, thereby elevating their privileges locally. This vulnerability could potentially compromise the system or lead to data leakage, affecting businesses, organizations, and individuals who rely on the vulnerable software, which could lead to significant financial and reputational damage if not addressed promptly.

Vulnerability Summary

CVE ID: CVE-2025-53149
Severity: High (7.8 CVSS Score)
Attack Vector: Local
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: System Compromise, Potential Data Leakage

Affected Products

Product | Affected Versions

Kernel Streaming WOW Thunk Service Driver | All versions prior to patch

How the Exploit Works

The exploit works by taking advantage of a heap-based buffer overflow in the Kernel Streaming WOW Thunk Service Driver. In computer security and programming, a buffer overflow, or buffer overrun, occurs when more data is put into a fixed-length buffer than it can handle. The extra data overflows into adjacent memory spaces, overwriting the information there, which can lead to erratic program behavior, including memory access errors, incorrect results, program termination (a crash), or a breach of system security.
In this case, the attacker, who already has access to the system, sends more data than expected to the Thunk Service Driver, causing the buffer overflow. This then allows the attacker to overwrite certain parts of the system memory, thereby elevating their user privileges within the system.

Conceptual Example Code

To illustrate how this might be exploited, consider the following conceptual code block:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
char buffer[15];
std::string oversize_input = "This string is too long for the buffer and causes an overflow";
strcpy(buffer, oversize_input.c_str());
std::cout << "Buffer content: " << buffer << std::endl;
return 0;
}

In this pseudocode example, the `oversize_input` string is significantly larger than the `buffer` array can hold. The `strcpy` function does not check if the source string (`oversize_input`) will fit into the destination array (`buffer`), leading to a buffer overflow. This is a simplified illustration, but in a real-world scenario, carefully crafted input could lead to execution of malicious code or escalation of privileges, as in the case of CVE-2025-53149.