Microsoft Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

[ Why it matters ]Priority signals

• Exploited in the wild: on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list since 2022-03-15
• Known to be used in ransomware campaigns
• EPSS: 20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (higher than 98% of CVEs)

[ Description ]Official description

The kernel-mode drivers in Microsoft Windows Vista SP2; Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1; Windows 7 SP1; Windows 8.1; Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2; Windows RT 8.1; and Windows 10 Gold, 1511, and 1607 allow local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka "Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability," a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-3308, CVE-2016-3310, and CVE-2016-3311.

CISA: A privilege escalation vulnerability exists when the Windows kernel fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode.

[ Fixes ]Fixes and patches

CISA required action (US federal deadline 5 Apr 2022): Apply updates per vendor instructions.

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

[ References ]References

• www.securityfocus.com/bid/92297Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
• www.securitytracker.com/id/1036572Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
• docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-098PatchVendor Advisory
• www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42960Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
• www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalogUS Government Resource