CVE-2022-38028: Microsoft Windows Print Spooler 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.
Microsoft Windows Print Spooler service contains a privilege escalation vulnerability. An attacker may modify a JavaScript constraints file and execute it with SYSTEM-level permissions.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute a modified JavaScript constraints file with SYSTEM-level permissions.
- Who is affected
- Deployments of Microsoft Windows Print Spooler are affected.
- Urgency
- Remediation is urgent due to active exploitation and critical severity.
- Action
- Apply the latest security updates to mitigate the vulnerability.
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-2022-38028
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-2022-38028Already exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 96% of all scored CVEs.
Referenced CVEs
| CVE | CSIRTS overview | External |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2022-38028 | coverage & exploitation status | NVD · CVE.org |
Recent advisories for Microsoft Windows Print
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-2022-41073: Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2022-11-08
- criticalexploitedCVE-2022-22718: Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2022-04-19
- criticalexploitedCVE-2022-21999: Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2022-03-25
- criticalexploitedCVE-2021-1675: Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2021-11-03
- criticalexploitedCVE-2021-34527: Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2021-11-03
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