CVE-2018-8589 on CISA KEV

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows improperly handles calls to Win32k.sys, aka "Windows Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability." This affects Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2.

01What CISA says about this vulnerability

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows improperly handles calls to Win32k.sys, aka "Windows Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability." This affects Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2.

02Required action — verbatim from CISA

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

03Notes & references

• www.securityfocus.com — http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105796
• www.securitytracker.com — http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1042140
• portal.msrc.microsoft.com — https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2018-8589

04SARA's analyst layer — why this matters

This vulnerability is currently on the CISA KEV list, which CISA only adds CVEs to when there is reliable evidence of active exploitation in the wild. For federal civilian agencies, BOD 22-01 requires remediation by the due date above. For everyone else, KEV is the strongest "patch immediately" signal you can get from public threat intel.

05Affected products (summary)

Vendor	Product	Versions
Microsoft	Windows Server 2008	32-bit Systems Service Pack 2, 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation), Itanium-Based Systems Service Pack 2, x64-based Systems Service Pack 2, x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
Microsoft	Windows 7	32-bit Systems Service Pack 1, x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
Microsoft	Windows Server 2008 R2	Itanium-Based Systems Service Pack 1, x64-based Systems Service Pack 1, x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)

06Detection

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