What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-1188: LNK Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.3 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 3.7% 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-59

Description

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Windows that could allow remote code execution if a .LNK file is processed. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. 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. The attacker could present to the user a removable drive, or remote share, that contains a malicious .LNK file and an associated malicious binary. When the user opens this drive(or remote share) in Windows Explorer, or any other application that parses the .LNK file, the malicious binary will execute code of the attacker’s choice, on the target system. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the processing of shortcut LNK references.

Affected products

• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607: 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903
• Microsoft Windows Server 2016: 1803, 1903
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019: all versions
• Microsoft Windows 10 1709: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1709 for 32-bit Systems: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows 10 1803: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows 10: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• 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 2019: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows Server, version 1803 (Server Core Installation): 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 1709 publication; Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1709 for 32-bit Systems publication; Microsoft Windows 10 1803 publication; Microsoft Windows 10 publication; 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 2019 publication; Microsoft Windows Server, version 1803 (Server Core Installation) 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-2019-1188
• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-1188

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