CVE-2023-1446Public exploit

System crash via unterminated IOCTL string

Published Mar 17, 2023 · Updated Aug 2, 2024

Denial of service in Watchdog Anti-Virus 1.4.214.0 allows local users to crash Windows through crafted driver IOCTL requests. The wsdk-driver.sys handlers for IOCTLs 0x80002004 and 0x80002008 pass an attacker-controlled buffer without a null terminator to RtlInitUnicodeString. Low-privilege local access is sufficient, and successful exploitation produces a system-wide blue-screen crash without reported confidentiality or integrity impact.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.33%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Denial of service in Watchdog Anti-Virus 1.4.214.0 allows local users to crash Windows through crafted driver IOCTL requests. The wsdk-driver.sys handlers for IOCTLs 0x80002004 and 0x80002008 pass an attacker-controlled buffer without a null terminator to RtlInitUnicodeString. Low-privilege local access is sufficient, and successful exploitation produces a system-wide blue-screen crash without reported confidentiality or integrity impact.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-1446
Published
Mar 17, 2023
Updated
Aug 2, 2024
Vendor
Watchdog
Product
Watchdog Anti-Virus
Classifications
CWE-404, CWE-476, T1499
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 17, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 2, 2024Record 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.

  1. Affected versionversion=1.4.214.0

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Watchdog · Watchdog Anti-Virusversion=1.4.214.0

Published CVSS scores

5.5VulDBCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
5.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.6VulDBAV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C

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.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-404Improper Resource Shutdown or Release
CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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