01 Record
CVE-2021-40449
Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
HighKEVPUBLISHEDCNA: microsoft
CNA base score7.8 CVSS v3.xCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C
02 Description
Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-17. Federal remediation due 2021-12-01. Known ransomware campaign use: reported by CISA.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
- AutomatablenoAt least one step from reconnaissance to exploitation cannot be reliably automated.
- Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 81.93% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 99.6% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 7.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- NVD analysis status
- Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.
- Red Hat severity
- No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2021-10-13 00:26Z5 YR AGO
- Last updated
- 2025-10-21 23:25Z1 YR AGO
- Reserved
- 2021-09-02
- Assigning CNA
- microsoft
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- High (CVSS 7.8)
- CNA CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C
- Weaknesses
- CWE-416Use After FreeVariant
- Data version
- 5.1
- Document digest
- ed2cd1d034c835b10b9328d40c94b45289dd098ebf94802e8e5db3d19ed135aa
05 Affected products
VendorProductVersionsPlatforms
MicrosoftWindows 10 Version 180910.0.0 to < 10.0.17763.223732-bit Systems, x64-based Systems, ARM64-based Systems
MicrosoftWindows 10 Version 190910.0.0 to < 10.0.18363.185432-bit Systems, x64-based Systems, ARM64-based Systems
MicrosoftWindows 10 Version 21H110.0.0 to < 10.0.19041.1288x64-based Systems, ARM64-based Systems, 32-bit Systems
MicrosoftWindows 10 Version 200410.0.0 to < 10.0.19041.128832-bit Systems, ARM64-based Systems, x64-based Systems
MicrosoftWindows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)6.0.0 to < 6.0.6003.2125132-bit Systems, x64-based Systems
MicrosoftWindows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)6.0.0 to < 6.1.7601.25740x64-based Systems
MicrosoftWindows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation)6.3.0 to < 6.3.9600.20144x64-based Systems
06 References
- portal.msrc.microsoft.comhttps://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2021-40449
- packetstormsecurity.comhttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/164926/Win32k-NtGdiResetDC-Use-After-Free-Local-Privilege-Escalation.html
- www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2021-40449