CVE-2019-0841 — Windows 10 1703
HIGHCVE-2019-0841 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-59 vulnerability in microsoft windows 10 1703. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-15) 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.
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) improperly handles hard links, aka 'Windows Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability'. This…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-15 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-04-05.
- 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-2019-0841.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-0841 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) improperly handles hard links, aka 'Windows Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability'. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2019-0730, CVE-2019-0731, CVE-2019-0796, CVE-2019-0805, CVE-2019-0836.
Affected Products
windows 10 1703microsoftwindows 10 1709microsoftwindows 10 1803microsoftwindows 10 1809microsoftwindows server 2016microsoftwindows server 2019microsoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Microsoft Windows - AppX Deployment Service Local Privilege Escalation (3)
by SandboxEscaper · Jun 7, 2019
Microsoft Windows - AppX Deployment Service Privilege Escalation
by Nabeel Ahmed · Apr 9, 2019
Microsoft Windows 10 < build 17763 - AppXSvc Hard Link Privilege Escalation (Metasploit)
by Metasploit · Jul 16, 2019
Microsoft Windows - AppX Deployment Service Local Privilege Escalation (2)
by SandboxEscaper · May 23, 2019
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every microsoft windows 10 1703 deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2019-0841 yet — track the microsoft windows 10 1703 advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-0841 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.