Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2022-26923
CVE-2022-26923
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Microsoft Active Directory vulnerability
An authenticated user can manipulate computer account attributes to obtain a certificate from Active Directory Certificate Services, enabling privilege escalation to SYSTEM.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
Authenticated attackers can exploit certificate issuance mechanisms in Active Directory to escalate privileges. This vulnerability requires valid credentials but allows lateral movement and system compromise within affected environments.
CISA KEV Yes · 2022-08-185EPSS 0.835 (verify live)6Exploit Public PoC7CVSS 8.83CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total4
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
5 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 2022-08-18).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.835 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 8.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C) · Affected: Microsoft, Active Directory. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation — weakness family: Authentication.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 100 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
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 authenticate to the domain with valid user credentials.
Business
Legitimate user accounts represent an internal trust boundary that must be protected.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I modify attributes on computer accounts I own or manage.
Business
Unauthorized account modifications indicate compromised access controls and audit trail integrity.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I request and obtain a certificate from Active Directory Certificate Services using manipulated attributes.
Business
Fraudulent certificate issuance undermines the security of the PKI infrastructure.
4
Data at risk — exfiltration narrative 4
Attacker
I use the certificate to escalate my privileges to SYSTEM level.
Business
System-level compromise enables attackers to control critical infrastructure and access sensitive data.
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
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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