Windows Remote Desktop Vulnerability Allows Authorized Users to Escalate Privileges

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

A vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-60703, has been discovered in Windows Remote Desktop Services (RDS) stemming from an untrusted pointer dereference, allowing a locally authenticated attacker to escalate privileges on affected systems by triggering memory corruption in the RDS core; an attacker with standard user credentials could potentially bypass security controls and execute arbitrary code with elevated rights, posing significant risk in multi-user environments and on shared or virtual desktop infrastructure where initial footholds or insider threats exist. It includes applying the vendor-provided security updates as soon as possible, enforcing least-privilege access, monitoring for unusual privilege escalations and suspicious scheduled tasks or remote-session activity, and segmenting networks to limit lateral movement while patches are validated in staging environments. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7.8.