Security Resilience

CVE-2024-20697

Memory Safety in Microsoft Windows 11 22H2 ≤ 10.0.22621.3007

High EPSSMemory Safety
Published
09 January 2024
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.72 99.4th percentile
Risk Priority 79 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-20697 is a high-severity Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CWE-122) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 11 22H2. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked in the top 0.6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

Windows libarchive contains a remote code execution vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-20697 and assigned CWE-122. The flaw affects the libarchive component shipped with Windows and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.3, reflecting local attack vector, low attack complexity, low privileges required, and required user interaction.

An attacker with local access and limited privileges can leverage the issue by supplying a malicious archive that triggers the flaw when processed, resulting in arbitrary code execution with full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact on the affected system.

Microsoft security advisories at the listed references describe available updates and mitigation steps for the vulnerability. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at 0.4943 with no material increase after disclosure.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Windows libarchive Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth
Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-43522Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2024-37977Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2025-21333Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2024-30085Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2024-21341Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2024-49081Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2024-49094Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2
CVE-2024-21345Same product: Microsoft Windows Server 2022 23H2
CVE-2024-21353Same product: Microsoft Windows Server 2022 23H2
CVE-2024-20696Same product: Microsoft Windows 11 22H2

Affected Assets

microsoft
windows 11 22h2
≤ 10.0.22621.3007 · ≤ 10.0.22621.3007
microsoft
windows 11 23h2
≤ 10.0.22631.3007 · ≤ 10.0.22631.3007
microsoft
windows server 2022 23h2
all versions

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and memory-error detectors) can discover heap overflows after they have been coded.

Input validation enforces bounds checking on data written to heap buffers, directly stopping the overflow condition from being introduced.

Security engineering principles require use of memory-safe constructs and bounds-checked allocation routines that avoid introducing heap overflows.

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the ability of a heap overflow to execute attacker-controlled code or corrupt adjacent structures.

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.

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover heap-overflow flaws but does not prevent their introduction in code.

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Timely patching removes known heap-overflow instances after they exist.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure-development practices directly require bounds checking and safe memory handling that prevent heap overflows.

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.

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References