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CVE-2023-21768

72
FAUCET Score

CVE-2023-21768 is an Elevation of Privilege vulnerability affecting the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock in Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022. With a CVSS score of 7.8 (HIGH), it allows a local attacker to gain high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability with low attack complexity. While not actively exploited in the wild (KEV: No), a Metasploit module exists, and it has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, indicating potential for future exploitation.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
21h2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11:21h2:*:*:*:*:*:arm64:*
21h2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11:21h2:*:*:*:*:*:x64:*
22h2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11:22h2:*:*:*:*:*:arm64:*
22h2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11:22h2:*:*:*:*:*:x64:*
Range not provided by sourceCPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2022:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.8HIGH

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

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
65.42%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
99.2%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
Metasploit: Ancillary Function Driver (AFD) for WinSock Elevation of Privilege · Jan 10, 2023
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.6542 is in the 100th percentile among its peer group of 16,994 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.2 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (6)

microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2022Fixed in: 10.0.20348.1487
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation)Fixed in: 10.0.20348.1487
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows 11 version 21H2 for x64-based SystemsFixed in: 10.0.22000.1455
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows 11 version 21H2 for ARM64-based SystemsFixed in: 10.0.22000.1455
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based SystemsFixed in: 10.0.22621.1105
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based SystemsFixed in: 10.0.22621.1105
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

microsoft2023-Jan/CVE-2023-21768Important

Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Jan 10, 2023

References

msrc.microsoft.com / update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2023-21768