CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-55234 — SMB Server might be susceptible to relay attacks depending on the configuration

Critical CVSS 9.8

SMB Server might be susceptible to relay attacks depending on the configuration. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could perform relay attacks and make the users subject to elevation of privilege attacks. The SMB Server already supports mechanisms for hardening against relay attacks: SMB Server signing SMB Server Extended Protection for Authentication (EPA) Microsoft is releasing this CVE to provide customers with audit capabilities to help them to assess their environment and to identify any potential device or software incompatibility issues before deploying SMB Server hardening measures that protect against relay attacks. If you have not already enabled SMB Server hardening measures, we advise customers to take the following actions to be protected from these relay attacks: Assess your environment by utilizing the audit capabilities that we are exposing in the September 2025 security updates. See Support for Audit Events to deploy SMB Server Hardening—SMB Server Signing & SMB Server EPA. Adopt appropriate SMB Server hardening measures.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2025-09-09
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

  • microsoft / windows_10_1507
  • microsoft / windows_10_1607
  • microsoft / windows_10_1809
  • microsoft / windows_10_21h2
  • microsoft / windows_10_22h2
  • microsoft / windows_11_22h2

Showing 6 representative product identities from 21 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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