Microsoft SharePoint: authentication bypass flaw under attack

What is affected

Microsoft SharePoint is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Microsoft SharePoint contains an improper authentication vulnerability that allows an authorized attacker to perform spoofing over a network. Successfully exploitation could allow an attacker to view sensitive information and make some changes to disclosed information. This vulnerability could be chained with CVE-2025-49704. CVE-2025-53771 is a patch bypass for CVE-2025-49706, and the updates for CVE-2025-53771 include more robust protection than those for CVE-2025-49706.

What an attacker can do

This is a authentication bypass flaw. It lets an attacker get in without a valid username and password and act as a legitimate user, often as an administrator.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

No account needed

Does the victim have to do something?

No, works without the victim doing anything

CISA records this vulnerability as known to be used in ransomware campaigns: attackers use it to get in, then encrypt files and demand payment.

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Microsoft SharePoint at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Disconnect public-facing versions of SharePoint Server that have reached their end-of-life (EOL) or end-of-service (EOS) to include SharePoint Server 2013 and earlier versions. For supported versions, please follow the mitigations according to CISA (URL listed below in Notes) and vendor instructions (URL listed below in Notes). Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• microsoft.comwww.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2025/07/22/disrupting-active-exploitation-of-on-prem
• msrc.microsoft.commsrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-49706

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on July 22, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by July 23, 2025, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 99% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 99.9% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 6.5 out of 10 (medium), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Improper authentication in Microsoft Office SharePoint allows an unauthorized attacker to perform spoofing over a network.