CVE-2019-1215 — Windows 7
HIGHCVE-2019-1215 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in microsoft windows 7. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) 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 in the way that ws2ifsl.sys (Winsock) handles objects in memory, aka 'Windows Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability'. This CVE ID is unique…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03 — including use in ransomware campaigns. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.
- 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-2019-1215.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-1215 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 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way that ws2ifsl.sys (Winsock) handles objects in memory, aka 'Windows Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability'. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2019-1253, CVE-2019-1278, CVE-2019-1303.
Affected Products
windows 7microsoftwindows 8.1microsoftwindows 10 1507microsoftwindows 10 1607microsoftwindows 10 1703microsoftwindows 10 1709microsoftResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Microsoft Windows 10 (19H1 1901 x64) - 'ws2ifsl.sys' Use After Free Local Privilege Escalation (kASLR kCFG SMEP)
by bluefrostsec · Jan 7, 2020
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every microsoft windows 7 deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Remediation status
No patch has shipped for CVE-2019-1215 yet — track the microsoft windows 7 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-2019-1215 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.