Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2016-0167
CVE-2016-0167
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Microsoft Win32k vulnerability
Microsoft Win32k privilege escalation vulnerability exploited in the wild and leveraged in ransomware campaigns. Attackers use crafted applications to escalate privileges on affected systems.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
Active exploitation in ransomware operations. Win32k privilege escalation enables attackers to move from user-level code execution to system-level access, facilitating malware deployment and system compromise.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
6 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.05729 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Microsoft, Win32k. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-264 Permissions/Privileges/Access Control — weakness family: Authorization / access control.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I deliver a crafted application to the target system, often through social engineering or supply chain compromise.
Business
Initial compromise establishes attacker foothold on employee workstations or servers.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I trigger the Win32k vulnerability through the application to escalate from user privileges to system privileges.
Business
Privilege escalation removes access controls, allowing attackers to bypass security boundaries.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I execute ransomware or additional malicious payloads with system-level permissions.
Business
Ransomware deployment encrypts critical data and systems, halting business operations and triggering extortion demands.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05