CriticalCVE-2022-41128

Windows Scripting Languages Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2022-41128)

Published 09.11.2022Last modified 10.08.2026In CISA KEV since 08.11.2022Sources: SingCERT, CVE.org

Actively exploited

What is affected, what to do

Windows Scripting Languages Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

The vulnerability is being actively exploited; treat it as a priority. Update Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507 to version 10.0.10240.19567, Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607 to version 10.0.14393.5501, Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809 to version 10.0.17763.3650. Immediate actions, mitigation and detection rules are in the runbook below.

Affected: Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507 lt 10.0.10240.0..10.0.10240.19567
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607 lt 10.0.14393.0..10.0.14393.5501
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809 lt 10.0.17763.0..10.0.17763.3650
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 20H2 lt 10.0.0..10.0.19042.2251
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H1 lt 10.0.0..10.0.19043.2251
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H2 lt 10.0.19043.0..10.0.19044.2251
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 22H2 lt 10.0.19045.0..10.0.19045.2251
Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2 lt 10.0.0..10.0.22000.1219
Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2 lt 10.0.22621.0..10.0.22621.819
Microsoft Windows 7 lt 6.1.0..6.1.7601.26221
Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 lt 6.1.0..6.1.7601.26221
Microsoft Windows 8.1 lt 6.3.0..6.3.9600.20671
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 lt 6.1.7601.0..6.1.7601.26221
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 lt 6.2.9200.0..6.2.9200.23968
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 lt 6.3.9600.0..6.3.9600.20671
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 lt 10.0.14393.0..10.0.14393.5501
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 lt 10.0.17763.0..10.0.17763.3650
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 lt 10.0.20348.0..10.0.20348.1249
Fixed in: Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1507 10.0.10240.19567
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607 10.0.14393.5501
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1809 10.0.17763.3650
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 20H2 10.0.19042.2251
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H1 10.0.19043.2251
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 21H2 10.0.19044.2251
Microsoft Windows 10 Version 22H2 10.0.19045.2251
Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2 10.0.22000.1219
Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2 10.0.22621.819
Microsoft Windows 7 6.1.7601.26221
Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 6.1.7601.26221
Microsoft Windows 8.1 6.3.9600.20671
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 6.1.7601.26221
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 6.2.9200.23968
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 6.3.9600.20671
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 10.0.14393.5501
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 10.0.17763.3650
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 10.0.20348.1249

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Metrics

8.8

Priority

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

Source: NVD, CVSS v3

8.8

CVSS v3

Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

Source: SingCERT, CVE.org

24.6 %

EPSS score

Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.

Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 97.9

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: 222.31 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: 8.8 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: 8.8
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: 24.6 %; Elevated — model estimates 10-50% exploitation likelihood.
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: 97.9; 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: 09.11.2022
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: 08.11.2022
CISA assessment (SSVC): Exploitation: active · automatable · Technical impact: total; Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 27 January 2025
CWE CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect. Read in glossary: CWE-787

Response and mitigation

Why act now?

Prioritisation rationale

This JScript9 engine flaw yields code execution over the network without prior authentication but requires the user to open crafted content — the classic profile of targeted spear-phishing with Office documents that load web content through MSHTML. It was fixed as a zero-day in the November 2022 Patch Tuesday release and EPSS still places it among the CVEs with very high exploitation likelihood; CISA reports no known ransomware use. Because the fix has been available for a long time, any remaining unpatched client is a hygiene gap: rank it high where users routinely handle external Office documents or belong to exposed groups, while fully patched estates only need build verification and the detections above as a safety net.

01
Runbook step 1
Immediate response (0-24 h)
- Deploy the November 2022 Windows cumulative security update (or any later one). Target builds per the advisory: Windows 10 1507 → 10.0.10240.19567, 1607 → 10.0.14393.5501, 1809 → 10.0.17763.3650, 20H2/21H1/21H2/22H2 → 10.0.19042/19043/19044/19045.2251, Windows 11 21H2 → 10.0.22000.1219. Look up the exact KB per build in the Microsoft Security Update Guide.
- Verify patch state from inventory (Intune, SCCM/MECM, Defender TVM): flag every host below the listed build as non-compliant. Include servers on build 14393 or 17763 (Windows Server 2016/2019) in the sweep.
- Fast-track unpatched workstations that open external Office documents (executives, procurement, HR, press office). Exploitation needs user interaction — the typical lure is a weaponised document or web page that pulls in the JScript9 engine via MSHTML.
- Tighten the mail gateway now: route external RTF and Office attachments to quarantine or sandbox detonation until patch coverage is confirmed.
- Isolate any endpoint hitting the detection rules below, capture memory, and reset the affected user's credentials.
02
Runbook step 2
Mitigation layers
- Configuration (GPO, Internet zone): disable "Allow active scripting" for the Internet and Restricted Sites zones. MSHTML-based components — including those embedded in Office — honour these zone settings. Test line-of-business apps first.
- Endpoint hardening (Defender ASR) in block mode: "Block all Office applications from creating child processes" (D4F940AB-401B-4EFC-AADC-AD5F3C50688A), "Block Office applications from creating executable content" (3B576869-A4EC-4529-8536-B80A7769E899), "Block Office applications from injecting code into other processes" (75668C1F-73B5-4CF5-BB93-3ECF5CB7CC84).
- Office configuration: enforce Protected View for internet-origin files and Outlook attachments; make sure Mark-of-the-Web survives extraction and file shares (use archivers that propagate MOTW).
- Mail/content filtering: block documents carrying external template references — OOXML settings.xml.rels with attachedTemplate and TargetMode="External", RTF control words such as \*\template or \objupdate pointing to an HTTP URL.
- Network/proxy: block or TLS-inspect outbound HTTP(S) fetches by Office processes (User-Agent containing ms-office or Microsoft Office) to uncategorised or newly registered domains.
- Least privilege: run users without local admin rights to contain post-exploitation in user context.
03
Runbook step 3
Detection rules
- Sysmon EID 7 / MDE DeviceImageLoadEvents: an Office process loading jscript9.dll — rare in normal use, tune against your baseline. KQL: DeviceImageLoadEvents | where InitiatingProcessFileName in~ ("winword.exe","excel.exe","powerpnt.exe","outlook.exe") and FileName =~ "jscript9.dll"
- Sysmon EID 1 / Security EID 4688 (process ancestry): winword.exe or excel.exe spawning cmd.exe, powershell.exe, rundll32.exe, regsvr32.exe, mshta.exe or wscript.exe. Sigma shape: ParentImage|endswith: ['\winword.exe','\excel.exe'] and Image|endswith: ['\powershell.exe','\rundll32.exe','\mshta.exe'].
- Sysmon EID 3 / Zeek http.log: an Office process reaching an external domain right after a document opens and retrieving .html/.htm or text/html content — indicative of a remote template fetch.
- EDR exploit/memory telemetry: Exploit Protection or EDR memory-corruption alerts involving jscript9.dll under Office or iexplore.exe; correlate with Application EID 1000 crashes naming jscript9.dll as the faulting module.
- File system (Sysmon EID 11): Office process writing a DLL/EXE to %TEMP% or %APPDATA% shortly after pulling external HTML content.

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

Windows Scripting Languages Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Source: CSA/SingCERT, CISA KEV Catalog, NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, 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 versions	Fixed in
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 1507	`10.0.10240.0 – < 10.0.10240.19567`	`10.0.10240.19567`
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 1607	`10.0.14393.0 – < 10.0.14393.5501`	`10.0.14393.5501`
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 1809	`10.0.17763.0 – < 10.0.17763.3650`	`10.0.17763.3650`
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 20H2	`10.0.0 – < 10.0.19042.2251`	`10.0.19042.2251`
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 21H1	`10.0.0 – < 10.0.19043.2251`	`10.0.19043.2251`
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 21H2	`10.0.19043.0 – < 10.0.19044.2251`	`10.0.19044.2251`
Microsoft	Windows 10 Version 22H2	`10.0.19045.0 – < 10.0.19045.2251`	`10.0.19045.2251`
Microsoft	Windows 11 version 21H2	`10.0.0 – < 10.0.22000.1219`	`10.0.22000.1219`
Microsoft	Windows 11 version 22H2	`10.0.22621.0 – < 10.0.22621.819`	`10.0.22621.819`
Microsoft	Windows 7	`6.1.0 – < 6.1.7601.26221`	`6.1.7601.26221`
Microsoft	Windows 7 Service Pack 1	`6.1.0 – < 6.1.7601.26221`	`6.1.7601.26221`
Microsoft	Windows 8.1	`6.3.0 – < 6.3.9600.20671`	`6.3.9600.20671`
Microsoft	Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	`6.1.7601.0 – < 6.1.7601.26221`	`6.1.7601.26221`
Microsoft	Windows Server 2012	`6.2.9200.0 – < 6.2.9200.23968`	`6.2.9200.23968`
Microsoft	Windows Server 2012 R2	`6.3.9600.0 – < 6.3.9600.20671`	`6.3.9600.20671`
Microsoft	Windows Server 2016	`10.0.14393.0 – < 10.0.14393.5501`	`10.0.14393.5501`
Microsoft	Windows Server 2019	`10.0.17763.0 – < 10.0.17763.3650`	`10.0.17763.3650`
Microsoft	Windows Server 2022	`10.0.20348.0 – < 10.0.20348.1249`	`10.0.20348.1249`

Vendors and products

Affected operating systems

Affected operating systems

Windows	microsoft	windows_10_1507	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_10_1607	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_10_1809	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_10_20h2	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_10_21h1	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_10_21h2	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_10_22h2	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_11_21h2	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_11_22h2	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_7	`sp1`
Windows	microsoft	windows_8.1	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_server_2008	`r2`
Windows	microsoft	windows_server_2012	`r2`
Windows	microsoft	windows_server_2012	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_server_2016	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_server_2019	—
Windows	microsoft	windows_server_2022	—

Weakness classes (CWE)

CWE-787Out-of-bounds Write
Base
The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.
Entry at MITRE CWE-787

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 Catalog	CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)cisa.gov	actively exploited	08.11.2022

References & sources

Microsoft Security Update GuideWindows Scripting Languages Remote Code Execution VulnerabilityVendor advisory, Patch
cisa.govknown-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2022-41128government-resource

Changes to this CVE

Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

10.08.2026Record modifiedMicrosoft

1 individual change: Affected versions (publisher)

Show the original change

Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
Type	Action	Before	After
Affected versions (publisher)	changed	Windows 10 Version 1809, Windows 10 Version 1809, Windows Server 2019 (+16)	Windows 10 Version 1507, Windows 10 Version 1607, Windows 10 Version 1809 (+16)

Source identifier: secure@microsoft.com

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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2022-41128"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2022-41128.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2022-41128 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>

What is affected, what to do

Metrics

Response and mitigation

Prioritisation rationale

Immediate response (0-24 h)

Mitigation layers

Detection rules

Detection rules

Classification under NIS2 and CRA

Description

Affected products

Vendors and products

Affected operating systems

Weakness classes (CWE)

Public exploit references

References & sources

Changes to this CVE