Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2023-23376
CVE-2023-23376
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Microsoft Windows vulnerability
Microsoft Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) driver vulnerability allows privilege escalation. Actively exploited in ransomware campaigns.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
A privilege escalation flaw in the Windows CLFS driver enables attackers to elevate permissions from lower-privileged contexts. Active exploitation in ransomware operations demonstrates immediate threat to Windows systems.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
9 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 2023-02-14), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.1088 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Microsoft, Windows. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow — weakness family: Memory safety.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
Execute code in a low-privilege process or sandbox context to gain initial foothold on the target system.
Business
Initial compromise of user workstations or service accounts creates entry point for lateral movement and data exfiltration.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
Trigger the CLFS driver vulnerability to escalate privileges from the compromised low-privilege process to system or kernel level.
Business
Privilege escalation enables attackers to bypass security controls and gain administrative access to critical system functions.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
Deploy ransomware payload or additional malicious tools with elevated privileges across the compromised system and network.
Business
Ransomware deployment with system-level access encrypts critical data and infrastructure, 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