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CVE-2024-38202 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Update stack that can allow an attacker with basic user privileges to abuse Windows recovery and update mechanisms to reintroduce previously mitigated vulnerabilities or bypass some protections provided by Virtualization Based Security (VBS). Microsoft states exploitation requires an attacker to induce an Administrator or another user with delegated privileges to perform a system restore, which then triggers the vulnerable condition. Public reporting around the issue associates it with downgrade-attack techniques against Windows update architecture, where protected components can be reverted to older vulnerable versions while the system may still appear updated. The vulnerability affects Windows platforms including Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server, and has been described as enabling privilege escalation to SYSTEM under successful exploitation scenarios.
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What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
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Patch, then assume compromise.
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No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
7 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
One of two CVEs Microsoft assigned in response to the SafeBreach Windows Downdate research covering downgrade-related Windows vulnerabilities.
A critical vulnerability in Windows update architecture and Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) that allows attackers to downgrade OS components, bypass security features, and reintroduce previously patched vulnerabilities, potentially leading to privilege escalation and system compromise.
An elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Windows Update Stack, with mitigations published but a full fix still in progress.
Windows Update Stack elevation-of-privilege vulnerability; publicly known and (per article) not yet patched at time of writing; could be abused for Windows update downgrade attacks.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.