What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-1185: Windows Subsystem for Linux Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 1.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2019-08-14 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-121

Description

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists due to a stack corruption in Windows Subsystem for Linux. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could execute code with elevated permissions. To exploit the vulnerability, a locally authenticated attacker could run a specially crafted application. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Windows Subsystem for Linux handles objects in memory.

Affected products

• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607: 1903
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016: 1903
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1903 for 32-bit Systems: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1903 for ARM64-based Systems: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows Server, version 1903 (Server Core installation): from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1903 for 32-bit Systems publication; Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1903 for ARM64-based Systems publication; Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems publication; Microsoft Windows Server, version 1903 (Server Core installation) publication. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-1185
• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-1185

Get alerted when CVE-2019-1185 or the next vulnerability affects your stack