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Two New Windows Zero-Days Exploited in the Wild — One Affects Every Version Ever Shipped (thehackernews.com)
submitted 2 months ago by Delta_V@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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..."The vulnerable driver ships with every version of Windows, up to and including Server 2025," Adam Barnett, lead software engineer at Rapid7, said. "Maybe your fax modem uses a different chipset, and so you don't need the Agere driver? Perhaps you've simply discovered email? Tough luck. Your PC is still vulnerable, and a local attacker with a minimally privileged account can elevate to administrator."...

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[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 months ago

To anyone misreading this, these exploits were patched yesterday and thus were included as the final patch for Windows 10 before the extended security updates requirements kick in.

Known exploits are always reported to the company first to give them time to patch it before releasing info on the exploits.

All Windows 10 users will continue to have access to the patches in this final freely available patch Tuesday for Windows 10. They just can't get new updates without joining the ESU program.

I hate Microsoft too and only use Linux, but let's stop the circlejerk of false claims here please and thank you.

[-] sourhill@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 months ago

Zero-day means the company had 0 days to fix it before the exploits were made public. Maybe the headline is wrong?

[-] MrNesser@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

Nope 0 days means

Zero-day vulnerability: A software flaw that attackers discover before the developer does.

Zero-day exploit: The method hackers use to take advantage of this unknown vulnerability.

Zero-day attack: An attack that uses a zero-day exploit to damage a system, steal data, or plant malware before a patch is available. This is a serious risk because no defenses are in place for this specific flaw yet.

The first is the most common one found in the press and is usually reported to the company so they can patch it, before press release.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 months ago

But it would be weird to call something a "zero-day" if it wasn't being exploited. Like if I discover a vuln, it shouldn't be considered a zero-day, even if I report it, if I'm not exploiting it in the wild.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

It was exploited. That's how they proved it worked. They just didn't exploit it to do anything nefarious.

[-] sourhill@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 months ago

Ahh TIL. Thanks for the clarification!

[-] Attacker94@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Maybe I was just missing pertinent information, but I thought a zero day was an attack that could be exploited in a very short time frame that has remained unpatched, I didn't realize there was a hierarchy to the different stages.

[-] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Nope, 0-day means it was exploited in the wild before the company knew about it. Basically, the company had to rush to patch it because it was already being exploited. It means black-hat hackers found it and exploited it before the white/grey-hat hackers reported it. If white-hat hackers found it first, they’d have already alerted the company and given time to patch it before they announced the vulnerability. But since the black-hat hackers found it first, it was a 0-day.

0-day patches are often a bodge, at best. They often consist of “just disable the vulnerable component entirely” to give the company time to work on a more long-term solution. And that’s exactly what happened here. MS didn’t take time to actually fix the driver; They just ripped it out and said “sucks if you needed it. It’s gone now.”

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago

Perhaps, either that or they made a very quick fix making updates to address them the day before this patch release.

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, until something like this happens again a year or two down the line. Not to mention all unpatched or lagging systems

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It’s interesting that this supposedly goes back to Windows 3.1 and the original release…

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Other articles make more clear why that is.

https://cyberpress.org/windows-agere-modem-driver-0-day-flaws/

Rather than issuing a traditional patch for each vulnerability, Microsoft’s October cumulative update completely removes the ltmdm64.sys driver from affected systems.

As a result, all fax modem hardware relying on the Agere Modem driver will cease to function. While mail and messaging over IP have largely supplanted analog modems, some industrial and legacy applications still depend on fax modems.

Organizations must therefore audit their environments for any remaining modem dependencies and either migrate to supported alternatives or implement workarounds where available.

Microsoft’s advisory explicitly recommends that customers eliminate any reliance on the deprecated hardware to avoid service disruptions.

So maybe not all the way back to the original release, but back to the first release that included this specific telephony modem driver, ltmdm64.sys. If I recall correctly, Windows 3.1 brought networking capabilities.

However, another article claims it has only been shipped with every version of Windows since 2006.

https://www.thestack.technology/windows-users-hacked-due-to-legacy-fax-modem-driver/

CVE-2025-24990 was credited to a security researcher going by the handle @shitsecure who told The Stack by DM “it’s a driver from 2006, never changed… I think it was historically shipped with everything, although that doesn’t make sense at all.”

Which honestly makes a lot more sense, since the "64" part of the driver name implies it's for 64 bit systems, which were first introduced in 2003.

Some more extraneous info on this driver/hardware:

https://www.sysnative.com/forums/drivers/1216/driver

https://theretroweb.com/chips/10725

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agere_Systems

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Thanks for the details!

I wonder how often they clean stuff up like this. That crossed my mind earlier, I’m sure there is a bunch of “dormant” software that could be cleaned out or made optional in some way.

But the making it optional idea is easier said than done. Especially from a standpoint of discoverability and usability.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Right, it was referenced in one of the articles that a bunch of legacy industrial machines likely still use this hardware, so the people using those old machines are probably going to have to go dig up PCI modems from that era without the Agere/Lucent chipset.

I'm sure you're right and there's lots of stuff they've missed like this over the years that they sort of kept on for compatibility but that opens exploits due to how old they are.

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca -2 points 2 months ago

People using that legacy hardware generally can’t run Windows 10, which just ended support this month. The patch is only for Windows 11, which won’t run on older hardware.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The patch is for Windows 10, Windows 11, and Server 2008 up to Server 2025.

Further, there's companies that make custom-built modern machines that support classic PCI and modern operating systems and classic operating systems.

It's conceivable that legacy systems are using modern OSes with virtualization running a legacy OS and legacy PCI cards, for example. It's not beyond the realm of possibility.

https://nixsys.com/legacy-computers/pci-slot-computers

[-] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

That’s still a lot of people that use that damn driver. I know at least in medical billing there’s always someone still using a damn fax machine. Almost every claim passes through fax technology at some point, although more and more of it is being emulated.

Where I work, it’s used mostly by emergency rooms that don’t want to use anything else.

This is not an environment where you want an exploit.

[-] Agent641@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Personally I blame Dave Plummer.

[-] 87Six@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago

Ah yes the 0-decade vulnerability...

Boi will I miss the ever-encompasing shield of Microsoft when my Windows 10 stops receiving updates...

[-] Delta_V@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

makes you wonder if/how/by who its been used all these years

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 3 points 2 months ago

I expect it's stuff like ATMs, Coinstar machines. Things that may need to phone home regularly but don't need to sit online constantly.

[-] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 points 2 months ago

I was curious about the "every version ever shipped."

This gets really old school.

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

People have probably been sitting on exploits for months or longer. There will probably be another wave after the 1 year extended support ends.

[-] REDACTED@infosec.pub 1 points 2 months ago

If I remember correctly, MS still pushed some critical patches to Win7 after the support ended as they realized 1/3 of world's computers turning into botnets is probably not in their interests.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 4 points 2 months ago

So stick with my Linux and don't boot into Windows again. Got it.

Lots of these exploits can be very specific cases so aren't going to threaten the average user. However the point is, Windows 10 is now a huge target and there are lots who would love to take advantage of a freshly open gate.

[-] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is fixed, and the attacker required physical access to the hardware.

[-] zleap@techhub.social 1 points 2 months ago

@Delta_V

It will be interesting what happens with this Windows 10 end of support, this just happens to crop up the day after support ends.

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The exploits are addressed in the patch released yesterday, on the final day of support.

Generally such exploits aren't released to the public until they have been patched, to prevent wider abuse of the exploits in the meantime.

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/en-US/advisory/CVE-2025-24990

As you can see here near the bottom of the page it lists security updates for this epxloit having been released on October 14rh, 2025, the final day of Win10 support. These updates will still be available to Windows 10 systems even after October 14th, they will just be unable to get new patches after that date.

[-] zleap@techhub.social 0 points 2 months ago

@SnotFlickerman

So will MS leave people in the lurch or issue an emergency patch? The former will drive people straight to replacements and the community need to be like a predator ready to move in to injured prey.

If we don't it will be a massive opportunity lost.

[-] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

Why not bother reading the comment you responded to?

[-] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

They will continue to releases major security updates for Windows 10 as long as it has double digit installed base share.

[-] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 0 points 2 months ago

Fixed and required physical access to the machine. If someone malicious has physical access to your machine you’re already done.

[-] utopiah@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Does it mean you don't think login password with physical token with disk encryption work?

this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
67 points (98.6% liked)

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