CVE-2017-8540

Deeper analysis

The vulnerability is a remote code execution flaw, tracked as CVE-2017-8540, in the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine used by Microsoft Forefront, Microsoft Defender, and related products. It affects Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, Windows RT 8.1, multiple Windows 10 releases through 1703, Windows Server 2016, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2016. The root cause is improper handling of a specially crafted file during scanning, which produces memory corruption classified under CWE-787.

An attacker can exploit the issue by supplying a malicious file that the engine processes on the target system. Successful exploitation grants arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the scanning process; the CVSS vector indicates local attack vector, low complexity, no authentication required, and user interaction needed, resulting in full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

Publicly available references, including the Microsoft Security Response Center advisory and an entry on Exploit-DB, indicate that updates addressing the flaw have been released, and at least one working exploit has been published.