CVE Tools

CVE-2021-43890

Windows AppX Installer Spoofing Vulnerability

Exploited in the wild. In CISA KEV since 2021‑12‑15. A vendor fix is available.

Published Updated Sources: CVE.org, NVD, BDU

What to do

The vendor has published a fix. Version details are below where the sources state them.

What it is

From the CVE record

We have investigated reports of a spoofing vulnerability in AppX installer that affects Microsoft Windows. Microsoft is aware of attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability by using specially crafted packages that include the malware family known as Emotet/Trickbot/Bazaloader. An attacker could craft a malicious attachment to be used in phishing campaigns. The attacker would then have to convince the user to open the specially crafted attachment. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. Please see the Security Updates table for the link to the updated app. Alternatively you can download and install the Installer using the links provided in the FAQ section. Please see the Mitigations and Workaround sections for important information about steps you can take to protect your system from this vulnerability. December 27 2023 Update: In recent months, Microsoft Threat Intelligence has seen an increase in activity from threat actors leveraging social engineering and phishing techniques to target Windows OS users and utilizing the ms-appinstaller URI scheme. To address this increase in activity, we have updated the App Installer to disable the ms-appinstaller protocol by default and recommend other potential mitigations.

In plain language

No plain-language summary for this CVE yet.

Exploitation

Where each signal puts this CVE on the scale from published to confirmed exploited.

EPSS96th
CISA KEV
CISA KEV

Listed as exploited in the wild since 2021-12-15.

US federal agencies must remediate by 2021-12-29.

Known use in ransomware campaigns.

Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Public exploits

No public exploit or proof of concept found in the sources we track.

EPSS

10% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the 96th percentile of scored CVEs.

Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST.org. A probability, not a confirmation.

Lifecycle

11 events over 1695 days, from the signal feeds we watch.

  1. Patch availablerecord updated
  2. Patch availablerecord updated
  3. Patch availablerecord updated
  4. Patch availablerecord updated
  5. Added to CISA KEVransomware campaignpublished, weakness classified

Affected products

And 1 more affected product. See all after sign-in

Technical detail

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Scored 7.1 by NVD.

How it is reached

  • Attack Vector NetworkExploitable remotely over the network without any special conditions
  • Attack Complexity HighRequires specific conditions like a race condition or non-default configuration
  • Privileges Required LowRequires basic user-level privileges
  • User Interaction RequiredA user must click a link, open a file, or perform some action

Scope

  • Scope UnchangedImpact is limited to the vulnerable component itself

Impact if exploited

  • Confidentiality HighTotal information disclosure — all data in the component is compromised
  • Integrity HighTotal loss of integrity — attacker can modify any data in the component
  • Availability HighTotal denial of service — the component is completely unavailable

Weaknesses

Sources

Watch the software you run.

My Stack ranks new CVEs for your products by real-world exploitation, so the next exploited one reaches you without reading every advisory.

We'll flag the next CVE, public exploit or patch for App Installer, not every advisory. This one: actively exploited.

We use analytics cookies to see which pages and articles actually help people. Decline and none of them run — the site works the same. What we store