8.1 High
CVSS3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
9.3 High
CVSS2
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Confidentiality Impact
COMPLETE
Integrity Impact
COMPLETE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Microsoft has revised the severity of a security vulnerability it originally patched in September 2022, upgrading it to โCriticalโ after it emerged that it could be exploited to achieve remote code execution.
Tracked as CVE-2022-37958 (CVSS score: 8.1), the flaw was previously described as an information disclosure vulnerability in SPNEGO Extended Negotiation (NEGOEX) Security Mechanism.
SPNEGO, short for Simple and Protected GSSAPI Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO), is a scheme that allows a client and remote server to arrive at a consensus on the choice of the protocol to be used (e.g., Kerberos or NTLM) for authentication.
But a further analysis of the flaw by IBM Security X-Force researcher Valentina Palmiotti found that it could allow remote execution of arbitrary code, prompting Microsoft to reclassify its severity.
โThis vulnerability is a pre-authentication remote code execution vulnerability impacting a wide range of protocols,โ IBM said this week. โIt has the potential to be wormable.โ
Specially, the shortcoming could enable remote code execution via any Windows application protocol that authenticates, including HTTP, SMB, and RDP. Given the criticality of the issue, IBM said itโs withholding technical details until Q2 2023 to give organizations enough time to apply the fixes.
โSuccessful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability,โ Microsoft cautioned in its updated advisory.
โUnlike the vulnerability (CVE-2017-0144) exploited by EternalBlue and used in the WannaCry ransomware attacks, which only affected the SMB protocol, this vulnerability has a broader scope and could potentially affect a wider range of Windows systems due to a larger attack surface of services exposed to the public internet (HTTP, RDP, SMB) or on internal networks,โ IBM noted.
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8.1 High
CVSS3
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
9.3 High
CVSS2
Access Vector
NETWORK
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Confidentiality Impact
COMPLETE
Integrity Impact
COMPLETE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C