CVE-2023-21721
Published: 14 February 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-21721 is a medium-severity Improper Authentication (CWE-287) vulnerability in Microsoft Onenote. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 9.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
Microsoft OneNote contains an elevation of privilege vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-21721. The flaw is associated with CWE-287 and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 6.5 reflecting network attack vector, low attack complexity, and low privileges required. It affects the OneNote application on supported Windows platforms.
An authenticated remote attacker can exploit the issue without user interaction to obtain high-integrity impact, allowing unauthorized modification of OneNote content or settings while leaving confidentiality and availability unaffected.
Microsoft's Security Response Center advisory at msrc.microsoft.com details the vulnerability and supplies the corresponding security update that addresses the weakness. The EPSS score reached a peak of 0.0762 with a current value of 0.0612, remaining at modest levels since disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-25888
Vulnerability details
Microsoft OneNote Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Detects unauthorized successful logons resulting from improper authentication implementations.
Documented procedures ensure personnel are trained on authentication mechanisms, tangibly lowering the risk of improper authentication being exploited.
Security awareness training instructs users on secure authentication practices and avoiding credential compromise.
Training on authentication mechanisms and best practices decreases the occurrence of improper authentication.
Non-repudiation requires strong authentication mechanisms to irrefutably attribute performed actions to specific individuals or processes.
Session content review can reveal authentication bypasses or failures in session establishment.
Review of authentication-related audit records can detect improper authentication mechanisms or bypasses.
Assessments check authentication mechanisms for correct implementation and effectiveness, reducing successful authentication bypass attempts.