CVE-2013-2551 — Microsoft
HIGHCVE-2013-2551 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Use After Free vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-28) and has been used in ransomware campaigns — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 through 10 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site that triggers access to a deleted object,…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-28 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-04-18.
- 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-2013-2551.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2013-2551 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
Use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 through 10 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted web site that triggers access to a deleted object, as demonstrated by VUPEN during a Pwn2Own competition at CanSecWest 2013, aka "Internet Explorer Use After Free Vulnerability," a different vulnerability than CVE-2013-1308 and CVE-2013-1309.
Affected Products
internet explorermicrosoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Microsoft Internet Explorer - COALineDashStyleArray Integer Overflow (MS13-009) (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Jun 13, 2013
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Remediation status
No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2013-2551 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2013-2551 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.