Zero-day vulnerability in Windows

Privilege escalation
CVE-2009-0078

Knows as Token Kidnapping.

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2008041402 - Multiple vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows

Vulnerable component: Windows

CVE-ID: CVE-2009-0078

CVSSv3 score: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Description:

The vulnerability allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the target system.

The weakness exists due to insufficient security protections in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) providers. Accessing the computer under the context of a NetworkService or LocalService account an attacker can obtain privileged security tokens and execute code with privileges of SYSTEM account.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability results in privilege escalation allowing to execute arbitrary code and take complete control over the affected system.

Note: this vulnerability was being actively exploited.

Public Exploits:

- Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2008/XP/Vista - WMI Service Isolation Privilege Escalation [Exploit-DB]

External links:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms09-012.aspx
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/srd/2009/04/14/ms09-012-fixing-token-kidnapping/
http://www.trendmicro.ie/vinfo/ie/threat-encyclopedia/archive/security-advisories/(ms09-012)%20vulne...

About zero-day vulnerabilities

Zero-day vulnerability is an undisclosed vulnerability in software that hackers can exploit to compromise computer programs, gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, penetrate networks, etc. We consider vulnerability a zero-day when there is no solution provided from software vendor and the vulnerability is being actively exploited by malicious actors.

Zero-day candidate is a potential zero-day vulnerability in software which might have been used in targeted attacks, however there is no evidence to support this suggestion.