CVE-2002-0367 — Windows 2000
HIGHCVE-2002-0367 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in microsoft windows 2000. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
smss.exe debugging subsystem in Windows NT and Windows 2000 does not properly authenticate programs that connect to other programs, which allows local users to gain administrator or…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-03. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-03-24.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2002-0367.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2002-0367 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
smss.exe debugging subsystem in Windows NT and Windows 2000 does not properly authenticate programs that connect to other programs, which allows local users to gain administrator or SYSTEM privileges by duplicating a handle to a privileged process, as demonstrated by DebPloit.
Affected Products
windows 2000microsoftwindows ntmicrosoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0/2000 - Process Handle Local Privilege Escalation
by EliCZ · Mar 13, 2002
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every microsoft windows 2000 deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2002-0367 yet — track the microsoft windows 2000 advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2002-0367 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.