SYSTEM privilege escalation via registry key replication
Published Jan 10, 2023 · Updated Apr 12, 2025
Elevation of privilege in Microsoft Windows allows local users with low privileges to gain SYSTEM access through registry virtualization. The key-replication path improperly creates stable registry keys beneath volatile parents, breaking a registry invariant and invalidating shared security descriptors. A local low-privileged user must trigger virtualization and a reboot; affected descriptors can then reset to parent permissions, enabling SYSTEM access.
Summary
What happened
Elevation of privilege in Microsoft Windows allows local users with low privileges to gain SYSTEM access through registry virtualization. The key-replication path improperly creates stable registry keys beneath volatile parents, breaking a registry invariant and invalidating shared security descriptors. A local low-privileged user must trigger virtualization and a reboot; affected descriptors can then reset to parent permissions, enabling SYSTEM access.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-21748
- Published
- Jan 10, 2023
- Updated
- Apr 12, 2025
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows 10 Version 1507
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 10, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 12, 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 <10.0.10240.19685
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 Kernel key-replication proof of conceptproof 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