CriticalCVE-2014-4077

    Microsoft IME Japanese Privilege Escalation Vulnerability (CVE-2014-4077)

    Published In CISA KEV since Sources: CVE.org

    What is affected, what to do

    Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, and Office 2007 SP3, when IMJPDCT.EXE (aka IME for Japanese) is installed, allow remote attackers to bypass a sandbox protection mechanism via a crafted PDF document, aka "Microsoft IME (Japanese) Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability," as exploited in the wild in 2014.

    The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

    Affected
    • Microsoft Office 2007 Input Method Editor (IME) Service Pack 3 Ja eq sp3..sp3
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 eq r2..r2

    Not sure whether and how you are affected? Ask a question about this vulnerability

    Metrics

    7.8

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: NVD, CVSS v3

    7.8

    CVSS v3

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: CVE.org

    54.6 %

    EPSS score

    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 99.02

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    Critical
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    217.44 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    actively exploited
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    7.8 Methodology
    CVSS v3

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    7.8
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    54.6 %
    High — model estimates ≥ 50% chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    99.02
    Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited
    Published
    In CISA KEV since

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: active · not automatable · Technical impact: total
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 10 February 2025

    Response and mitigation

    Why act now?

    Prioritisation rationale

    This bug served as the second stage of an exploit chain: a crafted PDF compromises the reader, and the Japanese IME is then abused to break out of the reader sandbox and elevate privileges. That pattern points to targeted spear-phishing, with a bias towards organisations that have Japanese-speaking users or sites. It requires local access and user interaction, but exploitation likelihood is still rated very high. CISA records no known ransomware use. For most European organisations, treat this as high priority only where legacy hosts with the Japanese IME installed actually exist. The real exposure is running unsupported Windows versions at all, and that should be remediated as a programme rather than as a single CVE.

    1. Runbook step 1

      Immediate response (0-24 h)

      • Inventory: Enumerate all hosts running Windows Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2 / R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1 and Office 2007 SP3. Specifically hunt for the presence of IMJPDCT.EXE under %SystemRoot%\IME\ or the Office IME install paths, via EDR file search or dir /s C:\IMJPDCT.EXE.
      • Apply the security update: A patch is available from the vendor. Look up the exact KB numbers for the Windows IME and Office 2007 IME fixes in the Microsoft advisory for CVE-2014-4077. Confirm deployment status through WSUS, SCCM or Intune.
      • Remove the Japanese IME where it is not needed: Uninstall the Japanese language pack or input locale and the Office 2007 IME component. Without IMJPDCT.EXE present, the flaw cannot be exploited.
      • Isolate legacy hosts: Every affected OS is end-of-support. Move these machines into a dedicated, tightly filtered segment with no mail, no internet browsing and no opening of external PDFs.
      • Update PDF readers: Real-world exploitation chains a malicious PDF with a reader sandbox escape. Bring Adobe Reader/Acrobat and any alternative PDF viewers up to current versions.

    2. Runbook step 2

      Mitigation layers

      • Application control: Use AppLocker or Software Restriction Policies to block IMJPDCT.EXE on any host without a business need for Japanese input, with both path and hash rules. Also deny any child process launched from AcroRd32.exe or Acrobat.exe.
      • Mail and web gateway: Detonate inbound PDFs in a sandbox. Quarantine PDFs containing embedded JavaScript, /OpenAction or /Launch. Enable IPS/Suricata signatures for malicious PDF object structures (file.pdf category).
      • Endpoint hardening: Disable JavaScript in the reader and enforce Protected Mode and Protected View. On Windows 7, EMET was the traditional sandbox-escape mitigation, but it is itself unsupported, so treat it strictly as a bridge until migration.
      • Least privilege: Remove local admin rights from standard users. This limits the impact of a successful elevation, in particular lateral movement with cached credentials.
      • Strategic: The only durable fix is migration to supported Windows and Office releases. Log the residual risk in the risk register under NIS2 and ISO 27001 A.8.8 (management of technical vulnerabilities).

    3. Runbook step 3

      Detection rules

      • Process ancestry (Sysmon EID 1 / Security 4688): Look for AcroRd32.exe or Acrobat.exe spawning IMJPDCT.EXE. Sigma shape: ParentImage|endswith: '\AcroRd32.exe' AND Image|endswith: '\IMJPDCT.EXE'.
      • IME spawning shells: Alert when IMJPDCT.EXE launches cmd.exe, powershell.exe, rundll32.exe, regsvr32.exe or binaries from %TEMP%. KQL: DeviceProcessEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName =~ "IMJPDCT.EXE" | where FileName in~ ("cmd.exe","powershell.exe","rundll32.exe").
      • Integrity-level jump: Flag a process moving from Low integrity (the reader sandbox) to Medium or High without a corresponding UAC event. Source this from EDR telemetry or the Sysmon IntegrityLevel field; it is a sandbox-escape indicator.
      • File writes (Sysmon EID 11): Watch for the reader process dropping .exe or .dll files outside its sandbox directory, for example into %APPDATA% or autostart locations.
      • Network (Zeek/Suricata): Watch for outbound connections from legacy segments to unknown external hosts shortly after a PDF is opened, which suggests a second-stage download. Correlate Zeek conn.log with http.log.

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    Actively exploited: treat the vulnerability as a priority in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2. If it is exploited in your environment, check the reporting obligation under Art. 23 (early warning within 24 hours).
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    Since 11.09.2026, manufacturers of affected products with digital elements must report actively exploited vulnerabilities under Art. 14 CRA, with an early warning within 24 hours via ENISA's single reporting platform.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    Description

    Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, and Office 2007 SP3, when IMJPDCT.EXE (aka IME for Japanese) is installed, allow remote attackers to bypass a sandbox protection mechanism via a crafted PDF document, aka "Microsoft IME (Japanese) Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability," as exploited in the wild in 2014.

    Source: cvelistv5, NVD (NIST), CISA KEV Catalog, CVE.org (MITRE)

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    microsoftoffice_2007_ime
    • sp3
    • —

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Windowsmicrosoftwindows_7—
    Windowsmicrosoftwindows_server_2003—
    Windowsmicrosoftwindows_server_2008r2
    Windowsmicrosoftwindows_server_2008—
    Windowsmicrosoftwindows_vista—

    Public exploit references

    Publicly reported proof-of-concepts, exploit modules and detection templates for this vulnerability. NEOSEC links to the original sources only and does not provide any exploit code.

    Public exploit references
    CISA KEV CatalogCISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.govactively exploited

    References & sources

    • securitytracker.com1031197Vulnerability database, x_refsource_SECTRACK, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • blogs.technet.comb/srd/archive/2014/11/11/assessing-risk-for-the-november-2014-s…x_refsource_CONFIRM, Not applicable, Vendor advisory
    • docs.microsoft.comMS14-078Vendor advisory, x_refsource_MS, Patch, Vendor advisory
    • securitytracker.com1031196Vulnerability database, x_refsource_SECTRACK, Broken link, Third-party advisory, Vulnerability database
    • cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2014-4077government-resource, US government resource
    Embed badge

    Show the severity and KEV status of this vulnerability on your site – with a link back here. The image is updated hourly.

    Badge preview for CVE-2014-4077
    <a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2014-4077"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2014-4077.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2014-4077 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>