August 2025’s Patch Tuesday brought major security updates from two of the biggest names in technology — Microsoft and Adobe — addressing a combined 170+ vulnerabilities across widely used products. The scale and severity of these updates make them critical for IT teams and security leaders to implement without delay.
Microsoft’s security release fixed 107 vulnerabilities, including one publicly disclosed zero-day and 13 critical flaws. Among these, several stand out:
- CVE-2025-50165 in Windows Graphics (CVSS 9.8) — a remote code execution (RCE) bug that could allow unauthenticated attackers to fully compromise a system without user interaction.
- CVE-2025-53766 in GDI+ — an RCE vulnerability exploitable via specially crafted metafiles in documents, potentially without user involvement.
- CVE-2025-53778 in Windows NTLM — an elevation of privilege (EoP) flaw that could give authenticated attackers SYSTEM-level privileges; exploitation is considered “more likely.”
- CVE-2025-50177 in Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) — a critical RCE bug with a high likelihood of exploitation.
The lone zero-day, CVE-2025-53779 in Windows Kerberos, allows privilege escalation through path traversal, potentially leading to domain admin rights.
Adobe’s updates spanned 13 products with over 60 vulnerabilities patched, 38 rated critical. Key targets included:
- Substance 3D tools — critical code execution flaws.
- Commerce and Magento — privilege escalation, arbitrary file read, and denial-of-service risks.
- InCopy and InDesign — nearly 20 critical bugs allowing arbitrary code execution.
- Updates for Animate, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dimension, and FrameMaker also addressed high-impact vulnerabilities.
Adobe notes that while exploitation is not currently seen in the wild, these vulnerabilities could enable privilege escalation, arbitrary file reads, denial-of-service attacks, or full code execution.
Security analysts stress that despite the lack of active exploitation reports for most flaws, attackers move quickly once technical details emerge. Organizations should prioritize patching vulnerabilities rated “more likely” to be exploited, particularly the Windows NTLM and MSMQ bugs.
Beyond applying patches, experts warn that patch management alone is insufficient. Organizations must adopt a holistic security posture — including vulnerability scanning, endpoint protection, network segmentation, identity hardening, and proactive threat hunting. With Windows 10 support ending in October 2025, enterprises should also plan OS migrations to maintain access to security updates.
The takeaway from August’s updates is clear: even without immediate exploitation, these vulnerabilities present high-value targets, and delaying remediation only increases risk. The time to patch — and to strengthen overall defenses — is now.
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