Technical Information

Brief overview of the risk:
The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An authenticated attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could bypass existing permission checks that are performed during cache modification in the Microsoft Windows Application Compatibility component and execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Detailed Information on the risk:

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in how the Microsoft Windows Application Compatibility Infrastructure (AppCompat) improperly checks the authorization of the caller’s impersonation token. An attacker could attempt to exploit this to run a privileged application. The update addresses the vulnerability by implementing proper authorization checking of impersonation token usage.

Further information on this exploit is available at : MS15-001

Windows 7 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 1
Windows 7 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-based Systems Service Pack 1
Windows 8 for 32-bit Systems
Windows 8 for x64-based Systems
Windows 8.1 for 32-bit Systems
Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1
Windows Server 2012
Windows Server 2012 R2