CVE-2025-65199: Windscribe for Linux 'changeMTU' local privilege escalation

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2025-12-10 · updated 2026-09-28
Weakness: CWE-78

Description

A command injection vulnerability exists in Windscribe for Linux Desktop App that allows a local user who is a member of the windscribe group to execute arbitrary commands as root via the 'adapterName' parameter of the 'changeMTU' function. Fixed in Windscribe v2.18.3-alpha and v2.18.8.

Affected products

Windscribe: from 2.10.1 through 2.17.10; 2.18.1-alpha, 2.18.3, 2.18.5

References

https://github.com/Windscribe/Desktop-App
https://github.com/Windscribe/Desktop-App/compare/v2.18.2...v2.18.3?diff=unified&w#diff-57e27ab201a1a612609087b839e03bf87a5a063ffcc3f465a6245469bc102754
https://github.com/Windscribe/Desktop-App/compare/v2.18.2...v2.18.3?diff=unified&w#diff-cfc5df17057ed92112ae70a42c81c57c79f434429210ff881fb0771cf8e39b4c
https://hackingbydoing.wixsite.com/hackingbydoing/post/windscribe-vpn-local-privilege-escalation
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cisagov/CSAF/develop/csaf_files/IT/white/2025/va-25-343-01.json
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-65199

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