Microsoft September 2025 Patch Tuesday: Critical Vulnerabilities and NTLM Risks
The September 2025 Patch Tuesday release from Microsoft includes fixes for 80 to 84 vulnerabilities, encompassing critical risks in NTLM authentication, remote code execution, and privilege escalation. This month’s patches target essential components in the Windows ecosystem and address two zero-day vulnerabilities.
Critical NTLM Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability (CVE-2025-54918)
CVE-2025-54918 is a newly patched Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability affecting Windows NTLM authentication. Rated critical, with a CVSSv3 score of 8.8, exploitation is considered more likely. The flaw enables attackers to elevate privileges to SYSTEM, the highest level of access in the Windows OS, potentially granting full control over compromised endpoints. This marks the third NTLM EoP vulnerability patched in 2025, highlighting NTLM’s persistent role as a target for privilege escalation attacks. Secure environments relying on NTLM for authentication should consider mitigations and prioritize this patch, particularly for systems exposed to untrusted domains or running legacy authentication protocols.
Windows NTFS Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2025-54916)
The patch cycle also includes addressing CVE-2025-54916, a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability within the Windows New Technology File System (NTFS). Rated important but flagged with high exploitation potential, the flaw allows any authenticated user to execute arbitrary code on affected devices. Such exploits often enable lateral movement in an intranet environment, making this a priority for organizations managing sensitive data or compliance-regulated workloads on NTFS volumes.
General Trends in Patch Distribution
September’s security update reflects growing risk in elevation of privilege (47.5%) and remote code execution (27.5%) vulnerabilities. Key components affected include Windows Kernel, LSASS, Azure Arc, virtual machine infrastructure, various Office modules, WinSock, BitLocker, Bluetooth, SMB, Hyper-V, PowerShell, and SQL Server. Many critical vulnerabilities this month still require user interaction (e.g., opening a malicious file or link), but increasingly sophisticated social engineering and AI-enhanced phishing attacks raise successful exploitation rates well beyond historical averages.
Recommended Actions
System administrators and security teams should deploy the September 2025 patches swiftly, scanning for vulnerable systems especially where NTLM and NTFS components are exposed. Continuous assessment with security plugins and regular updates is recommended to mitigate risks centered around privilege escalation and remote execution vectors.
Google Android Bulletin: Active Exploitation of Critical Vulnerabilities
Google’s September 2025 Android security bulletin revealed two critical vulnerabilities currently under active exploitation, targeting core components of the Android OS and increasing risk for mobile device users worldwide.
Details of CVE-2025-38352 and Second Active Vulnerability
The first vulnerability, assigned as CVE-2025-38352, allows attackers to bypass key OS-level protections. Attackers exploiting this flaw can potentially achieve remote code execution or privilege escalation, depending on device configuration and patch status. The exploitation is underway in the wild, emphasizing the urgency for end-users and managed mobile environments to apply the latest Android security updates. The second, unnamed in public releases, is also reportedly under active attack, with similar capabilities for unauthorized access, data exfiltration, and even device bricking in edge cases.
Implications and Defensive Measures
The active exploitation of these vulnerabilities demonstrates increased attacker focus on mobile endpoints, leveraging weaknesses in both core OS modules and application stacks. Enterprises deploying Android fleets should ensure automatic updates are enabled and enforce mobile device management (MDM) policies that restrict installation of unverified applications. Consumers are advised to update manually if automatic patching is not available, monitor for unusual device behavior, and limit access to sensitive resources through Android devices until fully patched.
AI-Augmented Phishing Campaigns and Threat Evolution
The use of generative artificial intelligence in cyber-attacks has escalated in late 2025, especially in phishing tactics. Attackers now craft convincing email threads and SMS lures with AI, making detection increasingly difficult for both end-users and automated filtering systems.
AI-Driven Sophistication: Multilayered Social Engineering
Instead of one-off phishing emails, genAI enables attackers to construct multi-message conversations that adapt to victim responses, mimic legitimate support interactions, and even spoof historical threads with high accuracy. These campaigns rely less on typical malicious indicators (such as links or attachments), exploiting trust and urgency generated through well-scripted correspondence.
Defensive Innovations in Response
With attacks evolving, new security products have integrated AI-powered analysis and behavioral modeling into email scanning and user education. Proactive awareness initiatives and continuous user training now stress recognizing manipulation techniques, not just technical markers. Enterprises are adopting layered defenses that combine static filtering, real-time AI intent detection, and endpoint monitoring for signs of credential theft or malware deployment.
Latest Information Security Products: Automation and AI-Driven Protection
This week’s infosec product launches highlight increased automation, agentic AI, and scalable risk management solutions focused on speeding up threat detection, simplifying compliance, and fortifying mobile and cloud data security.
Cynomi TPRM for Vendor Risk Management
Cynomi’s Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) platform empowers MSPs and MSSPs to reduce vendor assessment times from >7 hours to <5 hours by automating data ingestion and risk scoring. The platform scales for enterprise environments, improving margin and efficiency by nearly 80% and supporting ongoing risk reduction through adaptive risk models.
DataLocker DL GO: Biometric-Encrypted Portable Data Security
DataLocker DL GO provides hardware-level AES-256 XTS encryption with biometric access, supporting both Windows Hello and Apple Touch ID for enterprise and SMB. Devices can be managed individually or integrated into centralized console solutions, offering flexible deployment for managed or distributed data workflows. No drivers are required, ensuring compatibility and minimal friction for onboarding.
Gigamon Insights: Agentic AI for Threat Detection and Compliance
Gigamon Insights introduces agentic AI to SIEM and cloud observability platforms. The product leverages trusted metadata and context-rich insight delivery, enabling security analysts to accelerate root cause analysis and compliance checks without manual dashboard queries. By integrating with Elastic, Splunk, and AWS, the platform boosts IT productivity while supporting contextual investigations and automated response actions.
Lookout Smishing AI: Large Language Model Defense for SMS Phishing
Lookout’s Smishing AI combines large language models with real-time intent analysis, detecting SMS-based phishing attacks targeting mobile users. Unlike traditional approaches, the solution evaluates context and sender history, detecting sophisticated attacks that bypass URL filtering or sender validation. Enterprises can deploy this solution to protect remote workforces and BYOD environments from evolving text-based lures.
Relyance AI Data Defense Engineer
Relyance AI’s Data Defense Engineer offers continuous monitoring and autonomous enforcement of AI-driven data protection policies. Operating across thousands of data flows, the solution adapts to new threats and policy changes, helping organizations comply with dynamic privacy regulations and secure sensitive data at machine speed.