According to Infosecurity Magazine, Microsoft issued security updates yesterday to fix over 60 CVEs in November’s Patch Tuesday, including one zero-day vulnerability being actively exploited in the wild. The actively exploited flaw, CVE-2025-62215, is a race-condition and double-free vulnerability that enables local privilege escalation to system level. Action1 president Mike Walters confirmed threat actors are using this vulnerability despite no public proof-of-concept being available. Among the 60+ vulnerabilities fixed were 29 elevation of privilege flaws, 16 remote code execution bugs, and two security feature bypass issues. This marks the first Patch Tuesday since Windows 10 reached end of life, forcing Microsoft to issue an out-of-band update KB5071959 to fix ESU enrollment failures after some users couldn’t enroll in the Extended Security Updates program.
The kernel zero-day situation
Here’s the thing about this kernel vulnerability – it’s exactly the kind of bug that keeps security teams up at night. CVE-2025-62215 requires local access, but once an attacker gets that initial foothold, they can potentially take over the entire system. The race-condition aspect makes it tricky to exploit, but Mike Walters from Action1 makes it clear that threat actors have already figured it out. Basically, if someone can run code on your machine with low privileges, they might be able to escalate to full system control. And that’s terrifying when you consider how many ways attackers can get that initial access these days.
The other big threat
While the zero-day gets the headlines, there’s another vulnerability that might be even more dangerous for organizations. CVE-2025-60724 has a CVSS score of 9.8 – that’s about as bad as it gets. This one affects the GDI+ library, which is core Windows functionality for handling graphics and images. Ben McCarthy from Immersive Labs warned that this is particularly nasty because it can be triggered just by uploading a file to a web application. Think about how many systems process user-uploaded documents every day. For industrial environments and manufacturing facilities relying on Windows systems to control operations, this kind of vulnerability could be catastrophic. When you’re dealing with critical infrastructure, having reliable, secure computing hardware becomes non-negotiable – which is why companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com have become the go-to source for industrial panel PCs that can withstand these environments while maintaining security.
Windows 10 end of life complications
This Patch Tuesday really highlights the Windows 10 end-of-life situation. Microsoft had to scramble with an out-of-band update because people couldn’t even enroll in the Extended Security Updates program properly. That’s not a great look when you’re trying to convince organizations to pay for continued security support. The whole ESU process seems clunky, and when you combine that with the fact that this is the first time many users are navigating these waters, it creates a perfect storm for security gaps. How many organizations are going to delay patching because of these enrollment headaches?
What organizations need to do
Look, the message here is pretty clear – patch immediately, especially for that critical GDI+ vulnerability. The zero-day is concerning, but it requires that initial access first. The RCE flaw? That could let attackers in from the outside. And when you consider how these vulnerabilities can chain together – remote code execution followed by privilege escalation – you’re looking at complete system compromise. The timing is particularly awkward with the Windows 10 transition, but that’s no excuse for delaying. Organizations running industrial systems or manufacturing equipment need to be especially vigilant, since downtime from a security incident could cost far more than the patching process itself.
