Privilege escalation via activation-cache DLL hijacking
Published Sep 26, 2024 · Updated Aug 29, 2025
DLL hijacking in Microsoft Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2016, 2019, and 2022 allows local users to gain high integrity. Root-drive remapping makes high-integrity CTFMON load a crafted MsCtfMonitor.dll, whose direct ALPC request poisons the CSRSS activation cache so TCMSETUP loads attacker-controlled tapi32.dll. The user must belong to the Administrators group and control a medium-integrity process; the chain bypasses the UAC prompt and reaches full Administrator privileges.
Summary
What happened
DLL hijacking in Microsoft Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2016, 2019, and 2022 allows local users to gain high integrity. Root-drive remapping makes high-integrity CTFMON load a crafted MsCtfMonitor.dll, whose direct ALPC request poisons the CSRSS activation cache so TCMSETUP loads attacker-controlled tapi32.dll. The user must belong to the Administrators group and control a medium-integrity process; the chain bypasses the UAC prompt and reaches full Administrator privileges.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-6769
- Published
- Sep 26, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 29, 2025
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2019
- Classifications
- CWE-426, CWE-427, T1548.002, T1574.001
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 26, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 29, 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=10.0.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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
- Fortra CVE-2024-6769 functional proof of conceptfunctional · demonstrated
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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