KEVIntel
7.8
CVSS
High

CVE-2018-8453

PUBLISHED

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Windows when the Win32k component fails to properly handle objects in memory, aka "Win32k...

Exploited in the wild Used in malware Low complexity
Vendor
Microsoft
Product
Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 10, Windows 10 Servers
Published
Oct 10, 2018
EPSS

Description

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Windows when the Win32k component fails to properly handle objects in memory, aka "Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability." This affects Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows RT 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 10, Windows 10 Servers.

windows cisa malware ransomware metasploit microsoft

CVSS scores

CVSS v3.1 7.8 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0 7.2

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Exploitation status

Exploited in the wild

Recorded 2022-01-21 00:00:00 UTC · Source

Used in malware

Recorded 2022-01-21 00:00:00 UTC · Source

SSVC decision points

Exploitation
active
Automatable
No
Technical impact
total

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Catalogues that list this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability.

Source Added
CISA Jan 21, 2022

Recent mentions

Inside the customer environment: Where threat actors, vulnerabilities, and exposed assets intersect

Tenable Blog · May 27, 2026

Tenable Research has developed a graph-based model linking 600+ threat groups to real-world customer exposures. It reveals which vulnerabilities sit at the intersection of severity, active exploitation, and organizational risk.Key takeawaysThe "patch everything" strategy is dead: Vulnerability prioritization based on exploitation risk offers a path forward. A directed graph model linking 600+ threat actors to vulnerabilities in 7,800 customer environments reveals that 68% of organizations carry at least one CVE previously exploited by a named adversary, and 321 tracked threat groups can reach at least one customer environment through an active vulnerability. Prevalence of "Elite Arsenal" CVEs requires immediate attention: The 242 "Elite Arsenal" CVEs — those meeting all three criteria of critical VPR (≥ 9), CISA KEV listing, and documented threat group exploitation — are nearly universally present across the studied customer base, with 241 of 242 actively detected. More than half are five or more years old, and 78% of the persistently exploited core are simultaneously weaponized by nation-state APTs, commodity malware operators, and ransomware gangs. Non-CVE exposures are universally dangerous: Non-CVE exposures, including misconfigurations, weak credentials, and end-of-life software, are present in virtually 100% of studied organizations, with 60% carrying at least one that maps to a tracked threat actor's preferred techniques. Preliminary modeling suggests these exposures may confer more breach risk than CVE-linked findings, yet no industry-standard scoring infrastructure exists to prioritize them.While the first two posts in this blog series documented the accelerating vulnerability flood and the widening remediation gap, today we answer the outstanding question: Where do these forces actually collide inside customer environments? Using a directed graph model that maps more than 600 tracked threat groups to vulnerabilities observed across 7,800 organizations,...

Potential proof of concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

cve_2018_8453_win32k_priv_esc

metasploit · Created Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2018-8453

thepwnrip/leHACK-Analysis-of-CVE-2018-8453

github · Created 2019-07-08 13:06:10 UTC · 13 stars

Timeline

  • CVE ID Reserved

  • CVE Published to Public

  • Exploit Used in Malware

  • Added to KEVIntel

  • Detected by Metasploit