CVE-2025-24054 is a vulnerability related to NTLM hash disclosure via spoofing, which can be exploited using a maliciously crafted .library-ms file. Active exploitation in the wild has been observed since March 19, 2025, potentially allowing attackers to leak NTLM hashes or user passwords and compromise systems. Although Microsoft released a patch on March 11, 2025, threat actors already had over a week to develop and deploy exploits before the vulnerability began to be actively abused.
Around March 20–21, 2025, a campaign targeted government and private institutions in Poland and Romania. Attackers used malspam to distribute a Dropbox link containing an archive that exploited multiple known vulnerabilities, including CVE-2025-24054, to harvest NTLMv2-SSP hashes.
Initial reports suggested that exploitation occurred once the .library-ms file was unzipped. However, Microsoft’s patch documentation indicated that the vulnerability could even be triggered with minimal user interaction, such as right-clicking, dragging and dropping, or simply navigating to the folder containing the malicious file. This exploit appears to be a variant of a previously patched vulnerability, CVE-2024-43451, as both share several similarities.
