{"id":64146,"date":"2025-08-18T14:48:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T14:48:01","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-09-29T02:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T08:50:54","slug":"cve-2025-49661-untrusted-pointer-dereference-vulnerability-in-windows-ancillary-function-driver-for-winsock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49661-untrusted-pointer-dereference-vulnerability-in-windows-ancillary-function-driver-for-winsock\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-49661: Untrusted Pointer Dereference Vulnerability in Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The purpose of this blog post is to provide an in-depth analysis of the recently discovered vulnerability coded as CVE-2025-49661. This vulnerability affects the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock, which is a crucial component of the Windows operating system. The vulnerability is a result of an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-52813-uncovering-the-missing-authorization-vulnerability-in-mobiloud\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72234\">untrusted pointer<\/a> dereference that has the potential to allow an authorized attacker to escalate privileges locally. In the global context, this vulnerability is significant because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49691-heap-based-buffer-overflow-in-windows-media-leading-to-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72166\">Windows is one of the most popular operating systems<\/a> used by businesses and individuals worldwide. Therefore, the potential for widespread impact is high.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-49661<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 7.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low (Authorized User)<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27050-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74946\">Potential for system compromise and data<\/a> leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-892422244\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-48799-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-windows-update-service\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"77829\">Windows | All versions prior to the patched update<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-33075-a-critical-windows-installer-vulnerability-that-leads-to-privilege-elevation\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72367\">vulnerability works by exploiting an untrusted pointer dereference in Windows<\/a> Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock. When an authorized user sends malicious input that contains a crafted pointer, the system fails to validate the pointer properly. This failure to validate can allow the user to overwrite system memory, leading to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53762-privilege-elevation-vulnerability-in-microsoft-purview\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72927\">elevation of privileges<\/a>. This means that an attacker who has initial low-level access can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6754-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-seo-metrics-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72732\">escalate their privileges<\/a> within the system, potentially gaining full control.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2814207757\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The following is a conceptual example of how an attacker might exploit this vulnerability. Note that this is a theoretical example for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49526-out-of-bounds-write-vulnerability-in-illustrator-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"75154\">illustrative purposes and does not contain actual malicious code<\/a>.<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Attacker has initial low-level access\n$ whoami\nlow_privilege_user\n# Attacker uses the vulnerability to escalate privileges\n$ exploit_CVE-2025-49661\nExploitation successful.\n# Attacker now has escalated privileges\n$ whoami\nsystem<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the attacker uses the exploit to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6187-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-bsecure-wordpress-plugin\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"72974\">escalate their privileges<\/a> from a low privilege user to the system level, effectively gaining full control over the affected system.<br \/>\nThe best way to mitigate this vulnerability is to apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available. Until then, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. However, these are not foolproof solutions and the only surefire way to protect your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54742-data-deserialization-vulnerability-in-wpevently-leading-to-possible-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"86523\">systems is to apply the patch as soon as possible<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The purpose of this blog post is to provide an in-depth analysis of the recently discovered vulnerability coded as CVE-2025-49661. This vulnerability affects the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock, which is a crucial component of the Windows operating system. The vulnerability is a result of an untrusted pointer dereference that has the potential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[82],"product":[],"attack_vector":[],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-64146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-microsoft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64146"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79307,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64146\/revisions\/79307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=64146"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=64146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}