Windows Print Spooler Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

1. 2022-02-08 First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/windows/local/cve_2022_21999_spoolfool_privesc)
2. 2022-02-09 Published
3. 2022-03-25 Added to CISA KEV
4. 2022-04-15 CISA patch deadline
5. 2025-01-29 CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Added

4 y ago (2022-03-25)

Patch by

2022-04-15 (4 y ago)

Ransomware

Known to be used in ransomware campaigns

Required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Vendor, product

Microsoft, Windows

CISA name

Microsoft Windows Print Spooler Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

How it is exploited and what it leads to, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

• T1078 Valid Accounts exploitation
• T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation primary impact
• T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter secondary impact
• T1136.001 Local Account secondary impact
• T1211 Exploitation for Defense Evasion secondary impact

kev release 2025-07-28, att&ck v16.1. KEV to ATT&CK mappings by the MITRE Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Mappings Explorer, Apache-2.0). © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. Terms of use

Exploitation

Active, exploited in the wild

Automatable

no

Technical impact

total

Assessed

21 mo ago (2025-01-29)

41.01% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 98% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

• Metasploit exploit/windows/local/cve_2022_21999_spoolfool_privesc CVE-2022-21999 SpoolFool Privesc metasploit exploit, normal rank, 2022-02-08

• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1909
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2022
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 20H2
• Microsoft Windows Server version 20H2
• Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H2
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows 8.1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation)

Weakness

• CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory
• CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

• msrc.microsoft.com /update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2022-21999

  vendor-advisory, patch

• cisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-21999

  government-resource, us-government-resource

• CVE List CVE-2022-21999
• NVD CVE-2022-21999

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.