CVE-2023-24880: Windows SmartScreen Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability

Overview

Severity
Medium (CVSS 4.4)
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L/E:F/RL:O/RC:C
Category
Security Feature Bypass
Exploit Status
Actively Exploited
Exploitation Likelihood
Detected
Publicly Disclosed
Yes
Patch Tuesday
2023-Mar
Released
2023-03-14
Last Updated
2023-06-13
EPSS Score
73.31% (percentile: 98.8%)
CISA KEV
Listed — due 2023-04-04

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to some loss of integrity (I:L) and some loss of availability (A:L). What does that mean for this vulnerability? An attacker can craft a malicious file that would evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses, resulting in a limited loss of integrity and availability of security features such as Protected View in Microsoft Office, which rely on MOTW tagging. What is the relationship between Mark of the Web and Windows SmartScreen? When you download a file from the internet, Windows adds the zone identifier or Mark of the Web as an NTFS stream to the file. So, when you run the file, Windows SmartScreen checks if there is a zone identifier Alternate Data Stream (ADS) attached to the file. If the ADS indicates ZoneId=3 which means that the file was downloaded from the internet, the SmartScreen does a reputation check. For more information on SmartScreen, please visit Microsoft Defender SmartScreen overview | Microsoft Learn.

Affected Products (23)

Windows

  • Windows 10 Version 1809 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1809 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation)
  • Windows 10 Version 20H2 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 20H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 21H2 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1607 for 32-bit Systems
  • Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)

Security Updates (6)

Acknowledgments

Bill Demirkapi of Microsoft, Benoît Sevens and Vlad Stolyarov of Google’s Threat Analysis Group

Revision History

  • 2023-03-14: Information published.
  • 2023-06-13: Updated one or more CVSS scores for the affected products. This is an informational change only.