Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2015-1769
CVE-2015-1769
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Microsoft Windows vulnerability
A privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Mount Manager improperly processes symbolic links, allowing attackers to gain elevated system privileges.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
This vulnerability enables local attackers to escalate privileges through symbolic link manipulation in the Mount Manager component. Active exploitation in the wild demonstrates practical threat; however, it requires local access as a prerequisite.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-05-254EPSS 0.04339 (verify live)5CVSS 6.6 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
2 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-05-25).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.04339 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 6.6 (CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Microsoft, Windows. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-264 Permissions/Privileges/Access Control — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 2475 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I gain initial local access to a Windows system as an unprivileged user.
Business
An attacker establishes a foothold on the network through compromised credentials or local account access.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I craft a malicious symbolic link targeting the Mount Manager component to trigger improper processing.
Business
The attack vector requires no network traversal, reducing detection surface and enabling lateral movement preparation.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I exploit the symbolic link handling flaw to escalate my privileges to SYSTEM or administrator level.
Business
Privilege escalation grants the attacker full system control, enabling installation of persistent backdoors and malware.
4
Data at risk — exfiltration narrative 4
Attacker
I execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges to establish persistence or move laterally across the network.
Business
Compromised systems become fully controlled assets; attackers can access sensitive data, deploy ransomware, or pivot to critical infrastructure.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05