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CVE-2018-1038

42
FAUCET Score

CVE-2018-1038 is an Elevation of Privilege vulnerability in the Windows kernel affecting Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, stemming from how the kernel handles objects in memory. It carries a high CVSS score of 7.8, indicating a local attack vector with low complexity, allowing an authenticated attacker to achieve high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. While not listed in CISA KEV, public exploit code exists (EDB-44581), and it has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, including reports of it being introduced by Meltdown patches.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
Range not provided by sourceCPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_7:-:sp1:*:*:*:*:x64:*
r2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2008:r2:sp1:*:*:*:*:x64:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.8HIGH

CVSS:3.0/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
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
8.91%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
94.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-28
Model: v2026.06.15
ExploitDB: EDB-44581 · Apr 24, 2018
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0891 is in the 99th percentile among its peer group of 17,070 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 (4)

microsoftpatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows 7 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

microsoft2018-Mar/CVE-2018-1038

Windows Kernel Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Mar 13, 2018

References

blog.xpnsec.com / total-meltdown-cve-2018-1038
ExploitThird Party Advisory
portal.msrc.microsoft.com / en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2018-1038
PatchVendor Advisory
exploit-db.com / exploits/44581
ExploitThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securityfocus.com / bid/103549
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securitytracker.com / id/1040632
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry