Trend Micro Apex One Virus Scan Engine Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Trend Micro Apex One Security Agent contains a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2025-71212) that allows attackers with low-level code execution on a system to gain elevated privileges. This high-severity flaw (CVSS 7.8) significantly increases the potential impact of local compromises by enabling attackers to move from restricted to administrative access. Security teams should prioritize patching this vulnerability and review systems where low-privileged code execution may already be possible, as this represents a common multi-stage attack pathway.