Untrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7…

published 2015-03-11 11y ago modified 2026-06-17 4mo ago also EUVD-2015-0134

cvss: 9.3; version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 71.0%; EPSS 71.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.4%
public exploits: 3; Metasploit and Exploit-DB

Untrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, and Windows RT Gold and 8.1 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, leading to DLL loading during Windows Explorer access to the icon of a crafted shortcut, aka "DLL Planting Remote Code Execution Vulnerability."

Patch / fix

links 1

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2015/ms15-020 advisory

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Timeline

2010-07-18 First public exploit (EDB-14403)
2015-03-11 Published

Exploit prediction

70.96% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

Metasploit exploit/windows/fileformat/ms15_020_shortcut_icon_dllloader Microsoft Windows Shell LNK Code Execution metasploit exploit, excellent rank, 2015-03-10
Metasploit exploit/windows/smb/ms15_020_shortcut_icon_dllloader Microsoft Windows Shell LNK Code Execution metasploit exploit, excellent rank, 2015-03-10
EDB-14403 Microsoft Windows - Automatic .LNK Shortcut File Code Execution local, 2010-07-18

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	2.0	9.3	AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness

CWE-426 Untrusted Search Path

References

docs.microsoft.com /en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2015/ms15-020
vendor-advisory, patch
securitytracker.com /id/1031890
vdb-entry, third-party-advisory
securityfocus.com /bid/72894
vdb-entry, third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2015-0096
NVD CVE-2015-0096

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