Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2023-36025
CVE-2023-36025
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Microsoft Windows vulnerability
Microsoft Windows SmartScreen security feature bypass allows attackers to circumvent Windows Defender SmartScreen checks and associated user prompts.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A security feature bypass in Windows SmartScreen enables attackers to evade malware detection warnings. The high EPSS score and active exploitation indicate significant risk to Windows users relying on SmartScreen protection.
CISA KEV Yes · 2023-11-145EPSS 0.88085 (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
20 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 2023-11-14).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.88085 — 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:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:F/RL:O/RC:C) · Affected: Microsoft, Windows. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CNA-assigned (CVE.org), version 3.1, set at disclosure.
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 the same day 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.
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 malicious content or executables designed to trigger SmartScreen warnings.
Business
End users lose a critical layer of protection against malware and phishing attacks.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I exploit the bypass to deliver the malicious payload without user-facing security prompts.
Business
Attack success rates increase as users encounter no warnings, leading to higher infection rates across the customer base.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I distribute compromised files or links that bypass SmartScreen detection at scale.
Business
Organizations face increased incident response costs, data breach risks, and reputational damage from widespread malware infections.
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
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by microsoftCNA
Credited with finding itWill Metcalf (Splunk), Microsoft Threat Intelligence, Microsoft Office Product Group Security Teamfinder
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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