Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Improper Restriction of Operations Vulnerability (CVE-2017-8540)
Severity: high · Patch status: patched · Since 2022-03-03 · CVE-2017-8540
The Microsoft Malware Protection Engine running on Microsoft Forefront and Microsoft Defender on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, Windows RT 8.1, Windows 10 Gold, 1511, 1607, and 1703, and Windows Server 2016, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2016, does not properly scan a specially crafted file leading to memory corruption. aka "Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability". CISA added CVE-2017-8540 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Mar 3, 2022, which means attackers are exploiting it in the wild.
What to do
- Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- US federal agencies must remediate by Mar 24, 2022 (BOD 22-01); treat that as the outer limit.
Sources
All live incidents on Threat Watch
