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CVE-2024-38202 · Windows Update Stack Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Summary Microsoft was notified that an elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Windows Update, potentially enabling an attacker with basic user privileges to reintroduce previously mitigated vulnerabilities or circumvent some features of Virtualization Based Security (VBS). However, an attacker attempting to exploit this vulnerability requires additional interaction by a privileged user to be successful. Microsoft has developed a security update to mitigate this threat which was made available October 08, 2024 and is provided in the Security Updates table of this CVE for customers to download. Note: Depending on your version of Windows, additional steps may be required to update Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to be protected from this vulnerability. Please refer to the FAQ section for more information. Guidance for customers who cannot immediately implement the update is provided in the Recommended Actions section of this CVE to help reduce the risks associated with this vulnerability and to protect their systems. If there are any further updates regarding mitigations for this vulnerability, this CVE will be updated and customers will be notified. We highly encourage...

Severity
Important
Impact
Elevation of Privilege
CVSS
7.3 base · 6.9 temporal
Release
2024-08-07
Signals
Windows Update Stack Elevation of Privilege Exploited: No Publicly disclosed: Yes Exploitability: Exploitation Less Likely
CWE
CWE-284: Improper Access Control
Patch Diff
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Resolved binary override
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Description
Summary Microsoft was notified that an elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Windows Update, potentially enabling an attacker with basic user privileges to reintroduce previously mitigated vulnerabilities or circumvent some features of Virtualization Based Security (VBS). However, an attacker attempting to exploit this vulnerability requires additional interaction by a privileged user to be successful. Microsoft has developed a security update to mitigate this threat which was made available October 08, 2024 and is provided in the Security Updates table of this CVE for customers to download. Note: Depending on your version of Windows, additional steps may be required to update Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to be protected from this vulnerability. Please refer to the FAQ section for more information. Guidance for customers who cannot immediately implement the update is provided in the Recommended Actions section of this CVE to help reduce the risks associated with this vulnerability and to protect their systems. If there are any further updates regarding mitigations for this vulnerability, this CVE will be updated and customers will be notified. We highly encourage...
FAQ / Articles
FAQ
According to the CVSS metric, privileges required is low (PR:L). What does that mean for this vulnerability? The attacker must have permissions to access the target's System directory to plant the malicious folder that would be used as part of the exploitation.
FAQ
Are there additional steps that I need to take to be protected from this vulnerability? Depending on the version of Windows you are running, you might need to take additional steps to update Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to be protected from this vulnerability. For the latest version of Windows the process of updating WinRE is now fully automated. The following versions of Windows require no additional steps as WinRE will be updated as a part of the Latest Cumulative Update if you are getting updates from Windows Update and WSUS: Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems Windows 11 Version 24H2 for ARM64-based Systems Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems Windows 11 Version 23H2 for ARM64-based Systems Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems For the following versions of Windows, the WinRE updates listed are available. These updates automatically apply the latest Safe OS Dynamic Update to WinRE from the running Windows OS: Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation) (KB5046399: Windows Recovery Environment update for Azure Stack HCI, version 22H2 and Windows Server 2022: October 8, 2024) Windows Server 202...
FAQ
What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges.
FAQ
According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R). What does that mean for this vulnerability? To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must convince or trick an administrative user into performing a system restore.