Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2022-21882
CVE-2022-21882
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Microsoft Win32k vulnerability
Microsoft Win32k contains an out-of-bounds write vulnerability enabling privilege escalation. Actively exploited in the wild.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A memory corruption flaw in Win32k allows attackers to escalate privileges on affected Windows systems. The vulnerability is being actively exploited and carries high exploitation likelihood.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-02-045EPSS 0.54553 (verify live)6Exploit Public PoC7CVSS 73CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Public proof-of-concept exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
8 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 2022-02-04).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.54553 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C) · Affected: Microsoft, Win32k. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write — weakness family: Memory safety.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 24 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.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
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
Execute code with restricted privileges on a target Windows system
Business
Attacker gains initial foothold through application or user interaction
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
Trigger the Win32k out-of-bounds write through crafted input or API calls
Business
Memory corruption occurs in kernel-mode graphics subsystem
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
Escalate privileges from user-mode to kernel-mode execution context
Business
Attacker obtains SYSTEM-level access to the compromised host
4
Data at risk — exfiltration narrative 4
Attacker
Maintain persistence and execute arbitrary kernel-mode operations
Business
Complete system compromise with ability to disable security controls and deploy malware
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