Article
August 2025 Patch Tuesday: Key Vulnerabilities Overview
Introduction
August security update addresses 107 vulnerabilities, with 13 of them considered critical. These updates cover various Windows systems, Microsoft Office, and Azure cloud services. Several of these flaws, particularly those focused on remote code execution, could allow attackers to take control of your computer, steal information, or disrupt your digital life. In this article, we provide an overview of the patches and highlight the most critical updates that require immediate attention.
Summary of August 2025 Patch Tuesday
This month’s Patch Tuesday tackles some crucial security risks. Microsoft has released patches for 107 vulnerabilities, with 13 of them considered critical. These updates aim to protect against potential threats that could allow attackers to take control of your computer, steal information, or disrupt your digital life. Some key areas affected include Windows systems, Microsoft Office, and Azure cloud services. The focus is on preventing remote code execution, where attackers can run harmful programs on your device without you knowing.
Understanding these updates is crucial in protecting enterprise environments. Below, we categorize the vulnerabilities based on their exposure to the internet.
Updates are listed according to their CVSS Score
Exposed to internet
August 2025
Patch Tuesday
Internal Network
Exposed to the Internet
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) – Remote Code Execution
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ), a critical messaging infrastructure that supports asynchronous communication between applications, is vulnerable to a use-after-free condition. This flaw could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by sending crafted MSMQ packets, making it a concerning RCE vulnerability.
Windows Media – Remote Code Execution
Windows Media, which provides functionality for managing, streaming, and rendering multimedia content, is susceptible to an RCE vulnerability. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to launch remote attacks by exploiting specific components of Windows Media, thereby threatening the security of multimedia processing.
Azure Virtual Machines – Spoofing
Azure Virtual Machines, offering scalable performance for running Windows environments, contain a spoofing vulnerability. High-privilege attackers can exploit this flaw to perform local spoofing, leading to changes in the scope impact and potentially misleading system administrators about the source of certain actions or events.
Internal Network
Windows Graphics Component – Remote Code Execution
The Windows Graphics Component contains a critical RCE vulnerability caused by an untrusted pointer dereference. Remote, unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code over the network—potentially via crafted JPEGs—risking full compromise under the component’s privileges across image-handling paths.
Windows GDI+ – Remote Code Execution
Windows GDI+, responsible for rendering 2D graphics, images, and text, is affected by a critical RCE vulnerability. This flaw is due to a heap-based buffer overflow in GDI+, which could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code. Since GDI+ is a crucial component for graphical rendering in Windows, this vulnerability poses a significant risk.
Windows NTLM – Elevation of Privilege
The NTLM authentication protocol, used in Windows environments to validate user identities, contains an elevation of privilege (EoP) vulnerability. This flaw arises from improper authentication processes, potentially allowing attackers to gain SYSTEM privileges, significantly increasing their access level within the system.
Microsoft Word – Remote Code Execution
Microsoft Word, part of the widely-used Microsoft Office suite, is affected by a remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability stemming from a use-after-free flaw. This issue can be exploited via document files, posing a risk to millions of users who rely on Word for document processing and editing.
DirectX Graphics Kernel – Remote Code Execution
The DirectX Graphics Kernel, integral for high-performance graphics rendering and processing, has an RCE vulnerability. This vulnerability is due to type confusion in a kernel context, which can be exploited to execute arbitrary code, posing a significant threat to graphics-driven applications.
Windows Hyper-V – Remote Code Execution
Windows Hyper-V, the native hypervisor for creating virtual machines on Windows systems, has an RCE vulnerability. This flaw results from improper restriction of communication channels, offering a potential path for attackers to escape virtual machines (VM escape) and compromise the host system or other VMs.
Windows Kerberos – Elevation of Privilege
Windows Kerberos, a network authentication protocol used extensively in Active Directory environments, suffers from a publicly disclosed elevation of privilege (EoP) vulnerability. This flaw allows attackers to escalate privileges over a network, posing a risk to the security of sensitive data and system integrity.
Conclusion
In summary, this month’s patches are essential for protecting your digital world. Keeping your systems up to date is one of the most effective ways to guard against digital threats and minimize the risk of exploitation. We strongly encourage all users and organizations to install the latest patches without delay to ensure their systems remain secure.
Have questions about implementing these patches or securing your IT environment? Schedule a call with At-Bay’s Advisory Services team to get started.
About CVSS
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an industry-standard framework for evaluating and communicating the severity of software vulnerabilities. It provides a numerical score that helps organizations prioritize and address security issues effectively. CVSS scores quantify the severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 (no severity) to 10 (critical severity). CVSS considers multiple factors, including; Exploitability, Impact, Exploit code maturity, Remediation level, Report confidence. The system enables organizations to compare and prioritize vulnerabilities based on their potential impact on IT infrastructure.
References
- https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/releasenote/2025-aug
- https://blog.talosintelligence.com/microsoft-patch-tuesday-august-2025/
- https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/patch-tuesday-august-2025/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/windows-11-kb5063878-and-kb5063875-cumulative-updates-released/
- https://hackread.com/patch-tuesday-microsoft-fixes-vulnerabilities-rce-flaws/
- https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/blog/patch-tuesday-analysis-august-2025/
- https://blog.qualys.com/vulnerabilities-threat-research/2025/08/12/microsoft-and-adobe-patch-tuesday-august-2025-security-update-review