Microsoft Security Response Center

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability?** Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to gather information specific to the environment of the targeted component.

**What kind of security feature could be bypassed by successfully exploiting this vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could bypass Secure Boot.

**What kind of security feature could be bypassed by successfully exploiting this vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could bypass Secure Boot.

**What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain domain administrator privileges.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is network (AV:N) and the user interaction is required (UI:R). What is the target context of the remote code execution?** This attack requires an admin user on the client to connect to a malicious server, and that could allow the attacker to gain code execution on the client.

**According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R). What interaction would the user have to do?** In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website or server that contains a specially crafted file that is designed to exploit the vulnerability. However, an attacker would have no way to force the user to visit the website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince the user to click a link, typically by way of an enticement in an email or Instant Messenger message, and then convince the user to open the specially crafted file.

**The Security Updates table indicates that this vulnerability affects all supported versions of Microsoft Windows except Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012. Why are IE Cumulative updates listed for Windows Server 2012 R2?** While Microsoft has announced retirement of the Internet Explorer 11 application on certain platforms and the Microsoft Edge Legacy application is deprecated, the underlying MSHTML, EdgeHTML, and scripting platforms are still supported. The MSHTML platform is used by Internet Explorer mode in Microsoft Edge as well as other applications through WebBrowser control. The EdgeHTML platform is used by WebView and some UWP applications. The scripting platforms are used by MSHTML and EdgeHTML but can also be used by other legacy applications. Updates to address vulnerabilities in the MSHTML platform and scripting engine are included in the IE Cumulative Updates; EdgeHTML and Chakra changes are not applicable to those platforms. To stay ...

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability?** Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to gather information specific to the environment and take additional actions prior to exploitation to prepare the target environment.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack vector is network (AV:N) and the user interaction is required (UI:R). What is the target context of the remote code execution?** This attack requires a client to connect to a malicious server, and that could allow the attacker to gain code execution on the client.

**According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability?** Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to gather information specific to the environment of the targeted component.