Known exploited vulnerability

CVE-2015-1701

Microsoft Win32k Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

What is affected

Vendor Microsoft
Product Win32k
Weakness CWE-264

The vulnerability

An unspecified vulnerability exists in the Win32k.sys kernel-mode driver in Microsoft Windows Server that allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

US federal civilian agencies were required to act by 24 March 2022 under BOD 22-01. The deadline is a compliance date, not a measure of severity — it says nothing about how dangerous the flaw is to anyone else.

Ransomware

CISA records this vulnerability as having been used in ransomware campaigns. That is a confirmed observation, not an assessment of likelihood.

Where this comes from

Every field on this page is taken from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, last synced 12 Nov 2026, 21:26. Nothing here is our own assessment. For the technical scoring, see the NVD record below.

NVD record ↗ CVE.org record ↗

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