CVE-2015-1769Microsoft Windows Mount Manager Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
CVE-2015-1769 is a permissions and access control in Microsoft Windows, rated medium (6.6 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: Exploited in the wild: listed in CISA's KEV catalog.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed
What it is
Permissions or privileges are not enforced as intended.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it with physical access to the device, with an ordinary user account, and nobody has to click anything.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Is it being exploited?
CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-05-25: it is being exploited in the wild. EPSS estimates a 4.1% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of scored CVEs.
What to do
- Treat it as urgent: it is on CISA's KEV list. CISA's deadline for US federal agencies: 2022-06-15.
- Apply the fix for Microsoft Windows: the patch and release notes are linked below.
- Check exposed instances for signs of compromise, not only for the version.
Description from NVD
Mount Manager in Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, Windows RT Gold and 8.1, and Windows 10 mishandles symlinks, which allows physically proximate attackers to execute arbitrary code by connecting a crafted USB device, aka "Mount Manager Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability."
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Operating systems on servers, workstations or devices. Everything on the host inherits the flaw.
- Permission checks in APIs and admin surfaces. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
- Multi-tenant services. The flaw sits between one role or tenant and another.
Trust boundaries in play
- Host boundary. The attacker needs a foothold on the machine first; the flaw turns a small foothold into a bigger one.
- Between one role or tenant and another. An attacker who crosses it can reach data or actions their role should not allow.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does Microsoft Windows run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those devices sit where outsiders can touch them?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Read more
Patches and commits
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.