Microsoft’s May 2025 Patch Tuesday has brought to light a series of critical vulnerabilities within Windows Remote Desktop services, prompting immediate action from users to protect their systems from potential threats. The security update addresses a total of 72 flaws, with two particular vulnerabilities, CVE-2025-29966 and CVE-2025-29967, raising significant alarms among security experts.
These vulnerabilities are characterized as heap-based buffer overflow issues affecting the Remote Desktop Client and Gateway Service. This flaw allows unauthorized attackers to execute arbitrary code over a network, posing a serious risk to users. Microsoft elaborated on the risks, stating, “In the case of a Remote Desktop connection, an attacker with control of a Remote Desktop Server could trigger a remote code execution on the RDP client machine when a victim connects to the attacker’s server with the vulnerable Remote Desktop Client.”
The severity of these vulnerabilities is underscored by their “Critical” ratings and high CVSS scores, indicating a substantial potential impact on affected systems. They exploit weaknesses classified under CWE-122: Heap-based Buffer Overflow, which enables attackers to corrupt memory, paving the way for code execution.
Wide Range of Systems Affected
These vulnerabilities affect various versions of Windows operating systems that utilize Remote Desktop services. While Microsoft has not reported any active exploitation of these specific flaws, they have been classified with an “Exploitation Less Likely” assessment for the time being.
A cybersecurity researcher commented on the situation, noting, “Although these particular vulnerabilities haven’t been exploited yet, similar Remote Desktop flaws have been prime targets for attackers in the past. The potential for an unauthenticated attacker to gain remote code execution makes these vulnerabilities especially dangerous.”
In addition to the Remote Desktop vulnerabilities, the May Patch Tuesday update also addressed five actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities, including issues in the Windows DWM Core Library, Windows Common Log File System Driver, and Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock.
Experts are urging both organizations and individual users to apply these patches without delay. The vulnerabilities can be exploited when users connect to malicious Remote Desktop servers, which could lead to a complete compromise of client machines.
For systems unable to implement immediate patches, security professionals recommend restricting Remote Desktop connections to trusted servers and enhancing network security measures to mitigate potential attack vectors.
The May 2025 security updates are readily available through Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), and the Microsoft Update Catalog.
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