Windows Search Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

cisa required action Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

1. 2023-07-05 Found exploited as a 0-day (Project Zero)
2. 2023-07-11 Published
3. 2023-07-17 Added to CISA KEV
4. 2023-08-08 0-day patched (Project Zero)
5. 2023-08-29 CISA patch deadline
6. 2023-12-09 CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Added

3 y ago (2023-07-17)

Patch by

2023-08-29 (3 y ago)

Ransomware

Known to be used in ransomware campaigns

Required action

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor, product

Microsoft, Windows

CISA name

Microsoft Windows Search Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

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

Found

2023-07-05

Patched

2023-08-08

Details

project zero tracker

Groups reported to have exploited it in intrusions.

• Underground ransomware gang

reported by fortinet.com

Ransomware Vulnerability Matrix by BushidoUK (github.com/BushidoUK/Ransomware-Vulnerability-Matrix), reformatted per CVE. CC BY 4.0

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

• T1566 Phishing exploitation
• T1204.002 Malicious File primary impact
• T1005 Data from Local System secondary impact
• T1070.001 Clear Windows Event Logs secondary impact
• T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact secondary impact
• T1489 Service Stop secondary impact
• T1490 Inhibit System Recovery secondary impact
• T1553.005 Mark-of-the-Web Bypass 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 (2023-12-09)

99.44% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% 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 21H2
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 22H2
• Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2
• Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2
• 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-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization

• msrc.microsoft.com /update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2023-36884

  vendor-advisory, patch

• seclists.org /fulldisclosure/2023/Jul/43

  broken-link, mailing-list, third-party-advisory

• cisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-36884

  government-resource, us-government-resource

• CVE List CVE-2023-36884
• NVD CVE-2023-36884

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.