CVE-2024-38141 in Windows
Summary
by MITRE • 08/13/2024
Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/20/2025
This vulnerability resides within the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock component which serves as a critical interface for network operations and socket functionality across the windows operating system. The flaw manifests as an elevation of privilege issue that allows malicious actors to escalate their access rights from standard user level to SYSTEM level privileges, effectively compromising the entire system. The vulnerability stems from improper validation of input parameters within the kernel-mode driver routines that handle socket operations and network communications.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a flaw in how the Ancillary Function Driver processes specific network-related function calls that are typically used for socket manipulation and network configuration. When legitimate user-mode applications make certain API calls to the driver, the system fails to properly validate the data structures being passed through the kernel boundary. This allows attackers to craft malicious input that can manipulate memory locations or execute arbitrary code within kernel space, bypassing standard security mechanisms such as address space layout randomization and kernel address space protection.
From an operational perspective this vulnerability poses significant risk to enterprise environments where multiple users interact with network services and applications. The exploitation typically requires a user to initiate a specific network operation that triggers the vulnerable code path, making it difficult to detect through traditional network monitoring systems. Attackers can leverage this privilege escalation to install persistent backdoors, extract sensitive data from memory, or establish command and control channels without detection by standard security tools.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-121 which describes stack-based buffer overflow conditions in kernel-mode drivers, and represents a classic example of improper input validation leading to privilege escalation. From an ATT&CK framework perspective this maps to privilege escalation techniques using kernel vulnerabilities and can be categorized under T1068 for exploit for privilege escalation. The attack chain typically involves initial compromise through social engineering or exploitation of other vulnerabilities, followed by leveraging this specific driver flaw to achieve SYSTEM level access.
Mitigation strategies should prioritize immediate patch deployment from microsoft security updates which address the underlying validation issues in the kernel-mode driver components. Organizations must also implement network segmentation and application whitelisting to limit potential attack surfaces where malicious actors could trigger the vulnerable code paths. Additional defensive measures include enabling kernel-mode protection features such as control flow guard and ensuring that only necessary network services are running on target systems. Regular security assessments should focus on identifying applications that interact with socket APIs and monitoring for unusual network activity patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts.