CVE-2023-21752
Published: 10 January 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-21752 is a high-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 2.7% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-21752 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Backup Service. It carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.1 with the vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H and is associated with CWE-284. The flaw was publicly disclosed on 10 January 2023.
A local attacker who already possesses a low-privileged account on an affected Windows system can exploit the vulnerability to obtain elevated integrity and availability impact without user interaction. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to modify or disrupt backup-related operations on the host.
Microsoft has published official advisories for the issue at the listed MSRC update-guide URLs, which serve as the authoritative source for patch availability and mitigation guidance.
EPSS for the CVE rose from lower values to a peak of 0.6085 on 23 February 2026 before receding to the current score of 0.3793, indicating a period of increased exploitation interest after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-25919
Vulnerability details
Windows Backup Service 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.
The access control policy and procedures directly mandate and enforce proper access control mechanisms across the organization.
Device lock enforces restricted access until re-authentication, directly reducing unauthorized use of active sessions.
Supervision and review of access control activities directly detects and remediates improper access configurations or usages.
Explicitly identifying and documenting actions permitted without identification or authentication enforces proper access control boundaries by defining justified exceptions.
By automatically labeling outputs with security attributes, the control supports attribute-based enforcement and reduces exploitability of improper access control weaknesses.
Associating and retaining security attributes with data directly supports enforcement of access control decisions across storage, processing, and transmission.
Requiring prior authorization for each remote access type prevents improper access control over remote connections.
Requiring authorization of wireless access before allowing connections enforces proper access control for this access method.