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Actively exploited vulnerability

Microsoft Ancillary Function Driver (afd.sys): improper access control flaw under attack

CVE-2011-2005 · Microsoft Ancillary Function Driver (afd.sys) Improper Input Validation Vulnerability

Business software7.8 high

What is affected

Microsoft Ancillary Function Driver (afd.sys) is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

afd.sys in the Ancillary Function Driver in Microsoft Windows does not properly validate user-mode input passed to kernel mode, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application.

CISA's description

What an attacker can do

This is a improper access control flaw. It lets an attacker perform actions or reach data that should be restricted to authorised users.

How it is reached
Needs access to the device or a file opened on it
Access the attacker needs
No account needed
Does the victim have to do something?
Yes, the victim must open or click something

What to do

  1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
  2. If you administer Microsoft Ancillary Function Driver (afd.sys) at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
  3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Action required by CISA for US federal agencies

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on March 28, 2022, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by April 18, 2022, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 32% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 98% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 7.8 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

afd.sys in the Ancillary Function Driver in Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and SP3 and Server 2003 SP2 does not properly validate user-mode input passed to kernel mode, which allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka "Ancillary Function Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability."

NIST National Vulnerability Database
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