Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2024-38193
CVE-2024-38193
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Microsoft Windows vulnerability
Microsoft Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock contains a use-after-free vulnerability enabling local privilege escalation to SYSTEM.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A use-after-free flaw in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock allows authenticated local attackers to escalate privileges to SYSTEM level. Active exploitation in the wild increases risk despite requiring local access.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Public proof-of-concept exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
14 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 2024-08-13).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.27561 — 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-416 Use After Free — 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
I gain initial access to a Windows system as a standard user through phishing, weak credentials, or lateral movement.
Business
Attacker establishes foothold on corporate endpoint, bypassing initial access controls.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I trigger the use-after-free condition in the WinSock driver through a crafted local request.
Business
Memory corruption occurs in kernel-mode driver, creating exploitation window.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges by exploiting the memory corruption.
Business
Attacker gains complete system control, enabling malware installation, data exfiltration, and lateral movement.
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