Microsoft IME Japanese Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

[ Why it matters ]Priority signals

• Exploited in the wild: on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list since 2022-05-25
• EPSS: 55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (higher than 99% of CVEs)

[ Description ]Official description

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, and Office 2007 SP3, when IMJPDCT.EXE (aka IME for Japanese) is installed, allow remote attackers to bypass a sandbox protection mechanism via a crafted PDF document, aka "Microsoft IME (Japanese) Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability," as exploited in the wild in 2014.

CISA: Microsoft Input Method Editor (IME) Japanese is a keyboard with Japanese characters that can be enabled on Windows systems as it is included by default (with the default set as disabled). IME Japanese contains an unspecified vulnerability when IMJPDCT.EXE (IME for Japanese) is installed which allows attackers to bypass a sandbox and perform privilege escalation.

[ Fixes ]Fixes and patches

CISA required action (US federal deadline 15 Jun 2022): Apply updates per vendor instructions.

• Patch on docs.microsoft.comVendor patch or bulletin · NVD · Reference tagged 'Patch' by NVD

[ References ]References

• blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2014/11/11/assessing-risk-for-the-november-2014-securit…Not ApplicableVendor Advisory
• www.securitytracker.com/id/1031196Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
• www.securitytracker.com/id/1031197Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
• docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2014/ms14-078PatchVendor Advisory
• www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalogUS Government Resource