CVE-2016-7255
Actively exploited. CVE-2016-7255 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2016-7255 is indexed in Metasploit, Exploit-DB and GitHub PoC. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
Microsoft Win32k kernel-mode driver fails to properly handle objects in memory which allows for privilege escalation. Successful exploitation allows an attacker to run code in kernel mode.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- Microsoft Win32k kernel-mode driver fails to properly handle objects in memory, allowing privilege escalation.
- Who is affected
- Users of Microsoft Windows with the affected Win32k driver.
- Urgency
- Remediation is critical due to active exploitation and high severity.
- Action
- Install the latest updates from Microsoft.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 100% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2016-7255 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- MetasploitA Metasploit Framework module targets this CVE — weaponized, point-and-click exploitation.look it up ↗
- Exploit-DBA public exploit is published in the Exploit-DB archive.look it up ↗
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (1)
- criticalexploitedCVE-2016-7255: Microsoft Win32k Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2021-11-03
External references
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[](https://www.csirts.com/cve/CVE-2016-7255)