- CVE-2025-33073 sees Windows users facing SMB vulnerability
- Microsoft released a patch in June 2025 – make sure you’re up to date
- Google researchers were among those who discovered it
Microsoft has acknowledged that older versions of Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server could be exploited due to an SMB-related vulnerability.
The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-33073 with a score of 8.8, was added to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) List of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) on October 20.
Fortunately, Microsoft has already released a fix for this, so anyone who has applied the June 2025 Patch Tuesday update should be safe, but those who haven’t should act quickly.
CISA claims this Microsoft vulnerability was exploited
The bug stems from improper access controls in SMB (Server Message Block), which allow users and applications to access files or folders on remote systems as if they were local. For example, files and printers can be shared between computers.
“An attacker could execute a malicious script specifically designed to force the victim machine to reconnect to the attack system using SMB and authenticate,” CISA wrote.
Successful attacks cold grant system-level privileges.
Microsoft hasn’t commented on the new exploit, but the company has already fixed the issue, so it’s up to users to make sure they’re updated.
In addition to installing all updates – not just the June patch – to maintain maximum protection against bugs and vulnerabilities, users can monitor unusual outgoing SMB traffic in this case.
Restricting SME exposure to trusted networks would also help minimize potential leaks.
Microsoft thanked researchers from CrowdStrike, Google’s Project Zero and others for bringing the issue to light.
Cybersecurity firm Vicarius has released a detection script to identify whether a user’s Windows version is affected by the CVE, whether SMB signing is enabled, and to detail a fix.
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