CVE-2025-49385

Trend Micro Security 17.8 (Consumer) is vulnerable to a link following local privilege escalation vulnerability that could allow a local attacker to unintentionally delete privileged Trend Micro files including its own.

Weakness

The product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently handle when the file is a Windows shortcut (.LNK) whose target is outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files.

Potential Mitigations

• Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
• Denying access to a file can prevent an attacker from replacing that file with a link to a sensitive file. Ensure good compartmentalization in the system to provide protected areas that can be trusted.

References

• https://helpcenter.trendmicro.com/en-us/article/TMKA-18461
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-25-380/