Privilege escalation via reusable Kerberos password-change keys
Published Aug 9, 2022 · Updated May 29, 2025
Improper privilege management in Microsoft Windows Defender Credential Guard allows local users to elevate privileges through Kerberos password changes. Credential Guard permits protected encrypted Kerberos keys to be reused by the local caller in the Kerberos change-password flow. A low-privileged local session with access to a user's encrypted Kerberos key is required, and successful exploitation grants higher privileges.
Summary
What happened
Improper privilege management in Microsoft Windows Defender Credential Guard allows local users to elevate privileges through Kerberos password changes. Credential Guard permits protected encrypted Kerberos keys to be reused by the local caller in the Kerberos change-password flow. A low-privileged local session with access to a user's encrypted Kerberos key is required, and successful exploitation grants higher privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-35771
- Published
- Aug 9, 2022
- Updated
- May 29, 2025
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows 10 Version 1507
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1548
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 9, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 29, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0.10240.0 <10.0.10240.19387
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Windows Credential Guard Kerberos Change Password Privilege Escalationproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo