# CVE-2025-7973: Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® ViewPoint Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

> Attackers can hijack MSI repair operations to spawn an elevated command prompt, achieving full privilege escalation on FactoryTalk ViewPoint systems.

- **Severity:** High 8.5 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 14 Aug 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-r35r-4x8r-v472

## What is CVE-2025-7973?

CVE-2025-7973 is a high-severity vulnerability in Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® ViewPoint, published on 14 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A security issue exists in FactoryTalk ViewPoint version 14.0 or below due to improper handling of MSI repair operations. During a repair, attackers can hijack the cscript.exe console window, which runs with SYSTEM privileges. This can be exploited to spawn an elevated command prompt, enabling full privilege escalation.

Weakness: CWE-268 (Privilege Chaining)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-7973?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-7973?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-7973 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-7973 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-7973 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-7973 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-7973 is a high-severity vulnerability in Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® ViewPoint, published on 14 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-7973 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk® ViewPoint. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-7973/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-7973/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-7973
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-7973
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-7973

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-7973/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.