Following the April 2025 Patch Tuesday updates, users began noticing a new and mysterious folder “inetpub” on the C: drive. The folder appeared empty and many assumed it could be malicious. So they proceeded to delete the folder.
However, Microsoft later confirmed that this folder was indeed part of the April update, and it was a fix for the CVE-2025-21204 vulnerability.
Shortly after, a security researcher found that the interpub folder could help attackers permanently block Windows security updates, although, according to the company, this vulnerability is currently categorized as “moderate” severity, which does not require an immediate fix.
So Microsoft insists that the inetpub folder should not be deleted “regardless of whether Internet Information Services (IIS) is active” on your computer or not.
The company even released a new PowerShell script to restore the folder in case you deleted it, stating that “immediate recovery” is required.
“For systems with KB5055528 installed but the %systemroot%\inetpub directory deleted, immediate recovery is required. If the inetpub directory has been deleted, you must run the recovery script Set-InetpubFolderAcl.ps1.
This script:
To download the script, you need to visit the Microsoft PowerShell Gallery page . The script must be run with administrator privileges. The page also provides some additional instructions, if you need them.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
