Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-40444

<p>Microsoft is investigating reports of a remote code execution vulnerability in MSHTML that affects Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is aware of targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability by using specially-crafted Microsoft Office documents.</p> <p>An attacker could craft a malicious ActiveX control to be used by a Microsoft Office document that hosts the browser rendering engine. The attacker would then have to convince the user to open the malicious document. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.</p> <p>Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint both provide detection and protections for the known vulnerability. Customers should keep antimalware products up to date. Customers who utilize automatic updates do not need to take additional action. Enterprise customers who manage updates should select the detection build 1.349.22.0 or newer and deploy it across their environments. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint alerts will be displayed as: “Suspicious Cpl File Execution”.</p> <p>Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.</p> <p>Please see the <strong>Mitigations</strong> and <strong>Workaround</strong> sections for important information about steps you can take to protect your system from this vulnerability.</p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong> September 14, 2021: Microsoft has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Please see the Security Updates table for the applicable update for your system. We recommend that you install these updates immediately. Please see the FAQ for important information about which updates are applicable to your system.</p>

Published

2021-09-15T12:15:16.467

Last Modified

2025-04-04T20:46:47.360

Status

Analyzed

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 8.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
  • Availability Impact: PARTIAL
Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

6.4

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-22
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-22
Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Operating System microsoft windows_10_1507 < 10.0.10240.19060 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_10_1607 < 10.0.14393.4651 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_10_1809 < 10.0.17763.2183 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_10_1909 < 10.0.18363.1801 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_10_2004 < 10.0.19041.1237 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_10_20h2 < 10.0.19042.1237 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_10_21h1 < 10.0.19043.1237 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_7 - Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_8.1 - Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_rt_8.1 - Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2004 < 10.0.19041.1237 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2008 - Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2008 r2 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2012 - Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2012 - Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2016 < 10.0.14393.4651 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2019 < 10.0.17763.2183 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_2022 < 10.0.20348.230 Yes
Operating System microsoft windows_server_20h2 < 10.0.19042.1237 Yes
References