🛡️ CVE-2022-21838 — windows-10

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

• Attack vector: Local — a local account, shell or session on the host is needed.
• Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
• Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
• User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
• Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality impact: None.
• Integrity impact: None.
• Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Weakness class

CVE-2022-21838 is classified as CWE-59: Link Following. The software follows symbolic or hard links without verifying their target, so a planted link can redirect an operation to a sensitive file.

Affected software

CVE-2022-21838 is recorded against 9 packages.

• windows-10
• windows-11
• windows-7
• windows-8.1
• windows-server
• windows-server-2008
• windows-server-2012
• windows-server-2016
• windows-server-2019

Timeline and source

Published on 11 January 2022 and last revised on 17 June 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from NVD.

References

msrc.microsoft.com
portal.msrc.microsoft.com
www.zerodayinitiative.com

Other advisories for this package

windows-10 has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

• CVE-2023-36583 (7.3 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36606 (7.5 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36582 (7.3 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36593 (7.8 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36581 (7.5 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36592 (7.3 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36591 (7.3 High, published 10 Oct 2023)
• CVE-2023-36590 (7.3 High, published 10 Oct 2023)

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-59: Link Following) in other software:

• CVE-2026-71556 (8.0 High, published 18 Aug 2026)
• CVE-2026-71964 (6.5 Medium, published 10 Aug 2026)
• CVE-2026-63622 (7.8 High, published 10 Aug 2026)

Details

Affected Packages

References