External risk intelligence

Windows Hyper-V Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

CVE advisoryKnown Exploit

CVE-2024-38080

A vulnerability in Windows Hyper-V could allow a local attacker with user privileges to escalate their access to the system level. This may impact system integrity and data availability for affected organizations. The risk is considered internal, requiring an attacker to have existing access to the system.

1Halo Surface Signal

Integer Overflow

Microsoft Windows 11 21h2

before 10.0.22000.3079before 10.0.22621.3880before 10.0.22631.3880before 10.0.20348.2582before 10.0.25398.1009

External exposure likelihood

Halo Surface Signal score for CVE-2024-38080

This vulnerability is an elevation of privilege within Windows Hyper-V. It requires a local attacker to already have user-level access on the system to exploit it. It is not exposed to the public internet or reachable via remote network protocols in standard deployments.

Horizon Alert

Summary of the vulnerability and why it matters

This vulnerability affects Windows Hyper-V, a virtualization platform. A flaw within this system could permit an attacker with existing local user access to escalate their privileges to the highest system level. This could lead to significant disruption and compromise of the affected organization's systems and data.

Vulnerable component: Windows Hyper-V
Core weakness: Privilege escalation flaw
Main business impact: Unauthorized system control

Attack Path

How an attacker could exploit the issue

This vulnerability could allow a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on a Windows system. The attack requires the attacker to have existing user-level access to the affected machine. Successful exploitation could result in the attacker gaining system-level control, impacting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system.

Local access is required.
Attacker triggers an action.
Attacker gains SYSTEM privileges.

Live Threat

Current exploitation, exposure, and threat context

This Windows Hyper-V vulnerability allows a local attacker with existing user-level access to gain higher privileges on the affected system. The potential for elevated access could lead to significant damage to data integrity and system availability. Organizations should consider this a high-risk issue requiring prompt attention.

Likely attacker skill level: Low
Required access or conditions: Local user access
Business risk or urgency: High

Priority actions

Operational Fix

Recommended remediation, mitigation, and detection steps

This vulnerability in Windows Hyper-V could allow a local attacker with user privileges to escalate to SYSTEM privileges. The risk is classified as internal, meaning it requires an attacker to have existing access to the affected system. Organizations should prioritize identifying and mitigating exposure to this vulnerability.- Identify all systems running Windows Hyper-V.

Limit local access to Hyper-V hosts.
Apply vendor security updates.

Frequently asked questions

What is Windows Hyper-V?

Windows Hyper-V is Microsoft's virtualization technology built into Windows Server and Windows operating systems. It allows users to create and manage virtual machines (VMs), essentially running multiple operating systems on a single physical computer. This is useful for developers testing software, IT professionals managing diverse environments, and organizations looking to maximize hardware utilization.

How does CVE-2024-38080 allow privilege escalation?

CVE-2024-38080 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability classified as an integer overflow or wraparound. This weakness means that an attacker can exploit a flaw in how the software handles numerical limits to gain higher access levels, potentially escalating from user privileges to SYSTEM privileges on the host machine.

What are the preconditions for exploiting CVE-2024-38080?

An attacker needs to have authenticated, low-privilege access within a guest virtual machine on the Hyper-V host. From within this guest VM, they can then send specially crafted requests to the host that trigger the vulnerability, without requiring any user interaction on the host itself.

Why should I care about CVE-2024-38080 if my systems are not internet-facing?

This vulnerability is classified as 'internal' because it requires local access to the affected system. However, if an attacker gains initial access to a virtual machine within your environment, they could exploit this flaw to gain control of the entire host system and all other VMs running on it, making it a significant internal threat.

What is the first step to address CVE-2024-38080?

The immediate first step is to identify all systems running the affected versions of Windows with the Hyper-V role enabled and apply the relevant security updates provided by Microsoft. This will patch the vulnerability and protect against potential exploitation.

References

Written by Nicholas Merritt

External-surface CVE analysis and Halo Surface Signal prioritization for Halo Threat Intelligence.