CVE-2024-38217 — Microsoft Windows Mark of the Web (MOTW) Protection Mechanism Failure Vulnerability
Overview
Microsoft Windows Mark of the Web (MOTW) contains a protection mechanism failure vulnerability that allows an attacker to bypass MOTW-based defenses. This can result in a limited loss of integrity and availability of security features such as Protected View in Microsoft Office, which rely on MOTW tagging.
Vulnerability details
- CVE ID
- CVE-2024-38217
- Vulnerability
- Microsoft Windows Mark of the Web (MOTW) Protection Mechanism Failure Vulnerability
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Affected products
- Microsoft: Windows
- Severity
- HIGH
- Exploitation status
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV)
- Published
- 2024-09-10
Remediation guidance
CVE-2024-38217 is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog — U.S. federal civilian agencies are required to remediate it under Binding Operational Directive 22-01. Treat it as a priority for every environment.
Apply the vendor's official security update for Microsoft the affected product as soon as possible. Where a patch is unavailable, apply vendor mitigations or isolate/segment exposed systems.
Hunt for indicators of compromise tied to this vulnerability and confirm logging/EDR coverage on affected assets.
Authoritative references
Remediate CVE-2024-38217 — and stay ahead of the next one
CVE-2024-38217 is listed in the CISA KEV catalog as actively exploited — treat remediation as urgent. Scan your domain free to see whether CVE-2024-38217 and other Microsoft issues affect you and get a prioritized remediation report (full report from ₹999) — or stream the full feed of 1,600+ actively-exploited CVEs straight into your SOC.
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