Windows Print Spooler Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

1. 2022-11-08 0-day patched (Project Zero)
2. 2022-11-08 Added to CISA KEV
3. 2022-11-09 Published
4. 2022-12-09 CISA patch deadline
5. 2023-12-22 CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Added

4 y ago (2022-11-08)

Patch by

2022-12-09 (3 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

Detected in real attacks while still unknown to the vendor and the public, per Google Project Zero's 0day In-the-Wild tracker.

Patched

2022-11-08

Details

project zero root cause analysis

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
• T1574 Hijack Execution Flow 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

2 y ago (2023-12-22)

2.63% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 85% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 20H2
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H1
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H2
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 22H2
• Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2
• Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2
• Microsoft Windows 7
• Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows 8.1
• 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 2008 Service Pack 2
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (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)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2022

Weakness

• CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write

• msrc.microsoft.com /update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2022-41073

  vendor-advisory, patch

• packetstormsecurity.com /files/174528/Microsoft-Windows-Privilege-Escalation.html

  third-party-advisory, vdb-entry

• cisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-41073

  government-resource, us-government-resource

• CVE List CVE-2022-41073
• NVD CVE-2022-41073

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.