Kernel privilege escalation via failed registry reallocation
Published Oct 11, 2022 · Updated Jan 2, 2025
Use-after-free in the Windows kernel registry on affected Microsoft Windows releases allows local users to elevate privileges. The internal HvReallocateCell function can fail while shrinking a registry cell under memory pressure, but its caller treats reallocation as infallible and continues using freed memory. A low-privileged local account must induce the failed reallocation; successful memory corruption permits kernel-level execution, while failed attempts can crash the system.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Windows kernel registry on affected Microsoft Windows releases allows local users to elevate privileges. The internal HvReallocateCell function can fail while shrinking a registry cell under memory pressure, but its caller treats reallocation as infallible and continues using freed memory. A low-privileged local account must induce the failed reallocation; successful memory corruption permits kernel-level execution, while failed attempts can crash the system.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-37988
- Published
- Oct 11, 2022
- Updated
- Jan 2, 2025
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows 10 Version 1507
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 11, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 2, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0.10240.0 <10.0.10240.19507
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
- Project Zero issue 2330 reproducerproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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