CVE-2025-8069

During the AWS Client VPN client installation on Windows devices, the install process references the C:usrlocalwindows-x86_64-openssl-localbuildssl directory location to fetch the OpenSSL configuration file. As a result, a non-admin user could place arbitrary code in the configuration file. If an admin user starts the AWS Client VPN client installation process, that code could be executed with root-level privileges. This issue does not affect Linux or Mac devices.

We recommend users discontinue any new installations of AWS Client VPN on Windows prior to version 5.2.2.

Weakness

During installation, installed file permissions are set to allow anyone to modify those files.

Potential Mitigations

• Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
• Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/1.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/127.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/81.html

References

• https://aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2025-014/