Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-21769 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 2008. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) contains a denial-of-service vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-21769. The flaw is present in the MSMQ component on supported Windows systems and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, reflecting a network-accessible attack that requires no authentication or user interaction and produces a high impact on availability. The associated weakness identifiers are CWE-125 and NVD-CWE-noinfo.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can send specially crafted network messages to an MSMQ endpoint, triggering the flaw and causing the affected service to stop responding. Successful exploitation therefore allows an adversary to interrupt message-queuing operations without needing credentials or prior access to the target system.
Microsoft published an advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2023-21769 that details the affected versions and the corresponding security update. The current EPSS score of 0.4799, with a recorded peak of 0.5102, indicates moderate but not sharply increasing public interest in exploitation since disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-25936
Vulnerability Data
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) Denial of Service Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.
Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.
Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.