Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2024-38217
CVE-2024-38217
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Microsoft Windows vulnerability
Microsoft Windows Mark of the Web (MOTW) protection mechanism can be bypassed, allowing attackers to circumvent security features like Protected View in Office applications.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A protection mechanism failure in Windows MOTW enables attackers to bypass file origin verification controls, potentially exposing users to malicious content that would normally be blocked or sandboxed by Office applications.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
7 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 2024-09-10).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.09835 — 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-693 Protection Mechanism Failure.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 craft a malicious document and remove or spoof its MOTW tag to evade Office Protected View detection.
Business
Users open seemingly safe documents that execute malicious code, bypassing the security boundary that Protected View provides.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I distribute files via email or web download that lack proper MOTW attribution, making them appear locally sourced.
Business
Security controls relying on MOTW fail to activate, reducing the organization's defense depth against document-based threats.
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