CVE-2018-8440: Microsoft Windows Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Actively exploited. At least one CVE in this advisory is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — exploitation has been observed in the wild. Treat remediation as urgent.
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows improperly handles calls to Advanced Local Procedure Call (ALPC).
CSIRTS triage
- What
- An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows improperly handles calls to Advanced Local Procedure Call (ALPC).
- Who is affected
- Local users of Microsoft Windows with affected versions.
- Urgency
- Remediation is critical as this vulnerability is actively exploited and rated critical.
- Action
- Install the latest security patch for Windows.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Details
Original advisory: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-8440
Exploitation outlook
EPSS (FIRST.org) estimates each CVE’s probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — here is the CSIRTS.com read on those numbers.
- Exploitation confirmedCVE-2018-8440Already exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 97% of all scored CVEs.
Referenced CVEs
| CVE | CSIRTS overview | External |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2018-8440 | coverage & exploitation status | NVD · CVE.org |
Recent advisories for Microsoft Windows Privilege
A cluster of recent advisories against the same product widens the attack surface — attackers routinely chain freshly published CVEs on one product, so review these together.
- criticalexploitedCVE-2026-21533: Microsoft Windows Improper Privilege Management Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2026-02-10
- criticalexploitedCVE-2021-43226: Microsoft Windows Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2025-10-06
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-49039: Microsoft Windows Task Scheduler Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-11-12
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-38014: Microsoft Windows Installer Improper Privilege Management Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-09-10
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-38107: Microsoft Windows Power Dependency Coordinator Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-08-13
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-38106: Microsoft Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-08-13
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