#windows

**Is this advisory related to the vulnerability that is documented by CVE-2023-36884 that was issued in July 2023?** Yes, this defense in depth update is not a vulnerability, but installing this update stops the attack chain leading to the Windows Search security feature bypass vulnerability (CVE-2023-36884). Microsoft recommends installing the Office updates discussed in this advisory as well as installing the Windows updates from August 2023.

**What type of information could be disclosed by this vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could potentially read small portions of heap memory.

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

**What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain specific limited SYSTEM privileges.

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

**What type of information could be disclosed by this vulnerability?** An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could potentially read small portions of heap memory.

Mitigation refers to a setting, common configuration, or general best-practice, existing in a default state, that could reduce the severity of exploitation of a vulnerability. The following mitigating factors might be helpful in your situation: The Windows message queuing service, which is a Windows component, needs to be enabled for a system to be exploitable by this vulnerability. This feature can be added via the Control Panel. You can check to see if there is a service running named **Message Queuing** and TCP port 1801 is listening on the machine.

**According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R). What interaction would the user have to do?** An attacker must send the user a malicious file and convince them to open it.

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

**According to the CVSS metric, user interaction is required (UI:R). What interaction would the user have to do?** Exploitation of the vulnerability requires that a user open a specially crafted file. * In an email attack scenario, an attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending the specially crafted file to the user and convincing the user to open the file. * In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website (or leverage a compromised website that accepts or hosts user-provided content) containing a specially crafted file designed to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker would have no way to force users to visit the website. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to click a link, typically by way of an enticement in an email or instant message, and then convince them to open the specially crafted file.