In recent years, an issue that many small businesses and home workers who need IT support have noticed is that there is an increasing push to move people away from the faithful, familiar machines they have been using for many years towards newer upgrades.
The end of support for Microsoft Windows 10 in October was of particular concern because it left millions of people more vulnerable to security issues that could exploit weaknesses in a system that was not being actively supported, which could lead to data loss, data breaches and scams.
However, that was not the only issue Microsoft had with balancing compatibility and security in recent months, as an attempt to maintain plug-and-play compatibility with fax machines led to a security loophole that could potentially affect every Windows computer release since 2006.
Officially known as CVE-2025-24990, the exploit involves a legacy software modem (or Winmodem) driver that was used with some older Lucent fax machines, which followed the pre-Windows Vista approach of allowing high-end administrator privileges to avoid compatibility issues.
The problem with that is that an exploit was found that allowed someone to exploit a vulnerability in this driver (ltmdm64.sys) to be able to do anything with the computer, including installing a backdoor or remote access point for hackers to take advantage of in future.
Is it something to worry about? In the abstract, yes, but most home users and small businesses have probably already updated their computers to remove the exploit and should therefore be okay.
As it requires local access to take advantage of the vulnerability, someone would need to already have access to your computer. It became a tool used for escalating a cyberattack before it was removed entirely.
Most home users and small businesses will also not be affected by the removal of the driver, which affects a small number of LT Winmodems, as they either use a more modern fax system or do not use faxes at all.
