Privilege escalation in Microsoft Windows

1) Privilege escalation

EUVDB-ID: #VU4790

Risk: Medium

CVSSv3.1: 8.4 [CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2013-3660

CWE-ID: CWE-119 - Memory corruption

Exploit availability: Yes

Description

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to obtain elevated privileges on the target system.

The weakness exists due to the failure to properly initialize a pointer for the next object in a certain list by the EPATHOBJ::pprFlattenRec function within kernel-mode driver (win32k.sys). A local attacker can use multiple FlattenPath function calls to obtain write access to the PATHRECORD chain and execute arbitrary code on the system with elevated privileges.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in arbitrary code execution on the vulnerable system.

Note: the vulnerability was being actively exploited.

Mitigation

Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Windows: 7 - XP

Windows Server: 2003 - 2012

External links

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms13-053

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

Yes. This vulnerability is being exploited in the wild.