Win32k.sys in the kernel-mode drivers in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Vista SP2, and Server 2008 SP2 allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, as exploited in the wild in April 2015, aka "Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability."
CVE-2015-1701
“▲” beside the score: it is higher than NVD's CVSS score.
Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-03), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV) — the reason this is sooner than the SSVC decision on this page at low or medium mission impact
A fix is referenced (a reference tagged "Patch", often a source commit), but no release containing it is confirmed — find the release that contains it; until it is applied, mitigate (WAF / firewall / segmentation).
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 81EG Risk 81/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity90% × 45%The EG Score, 9.0 of 10.Exploitation100% × 40%Fixed at 100% for a CISA KEV listing: EchelonGraph's rule.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is referenced, but no release containing it is confirmed. Check the referenced fix and the vendor's advisory for a release that contains it and apply that within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact; until then, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation. - EPSS PROB
- 56%
- EPSS %ILE
- 99th
- KEV
- ⚠ Exploited
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.
A fix is referenced, but no release containing it is confirmed. Check the referenced fix and the vendor's advisory for a release that contains it and apply that within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact; until then, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation.
Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days & forensic triage if the affected system is publicly exposed; 14 days if it is not.
In CISA KEV yes (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
CISA required action“Apply updates per vendor instructions.”
Quoted verbatim from CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. CISA directs it at US federal civilian executive branch agencies under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, which replaced BOD 22-01 on 10 June 2026; it is not EchelonGraph's advice. CISA's notes: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-1701
Published
April 21, 2015
Last Modified
August 14, 2026
Advisory Details (6)
Auto-updated Oct 12, 2026Full Disclosure: KL-001-2020-002 : Cellebrite Restricted Desktop Escape and Escalation of User Privilege
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/May/34Microsoft Windows - ClientCopyImage Win32k (MS15-051) (Metasploit) - Windows local Exploit
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/37367/Microsoft Windows - Local Privilege Escalation (MS15-051) - Windows local Exploit
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/37049/Microsoft Security Bulletin MS15-051 - Important | Microsoft Learn
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2015/ms15-051Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 52× in last 7d / 216× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 967 refreshes on record for this CVE.
A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. None are among the latest 100 rows. The 867 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.
- 2026-10-12 16:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-12 05:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-12 01:16 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 21:01 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 21:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 16:45 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 16:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 13:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-11 12:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-11 12:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 08:14 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-11 03:58 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 23:43 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-10 23:42 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 19:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-10 19:27 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 15:12 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 10:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 06:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-10 02:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 22:09 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-09 22:09 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 20:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-09 17:52 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 13:37 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
Show 75 moreShow fewer
- 2026-10-09 09:21 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 05:05 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-09 00:50 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 20:35 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-08 20:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 16:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-08 16:19 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 12:02 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 07:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-08 03:31 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-08 03:31 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-07 23:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-07 23:16 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-07 19:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-07 14:46 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-07 10:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-07 06:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-07 01:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-06 21:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-06 17:26 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-06 17:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-06 15:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-06 13:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-06 08:56 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-06 04:38 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-06 00:23 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-05 20:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-05 15:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-05 11:35 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-05 07:21 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-05 03:06 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-04 22:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-04 18:36 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-04 14:20 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-04 10:04 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-04 05:48 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-04 01:34 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-03 21:17 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-03 17:01 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-03 17:01 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-03 14:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-03 12:47 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-03 08:31 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-03 04:13 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-02 23:57 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-02 19:41 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-02 19:41 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-02 15:25 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-02 11:07 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-02 06:52 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-02 02:36 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-01 22:18 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-01 22:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-01 19:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-10-01 18:02 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-01 13:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-01 09:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-01 05:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-10-01 01:00 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-30 20:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-30 16:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-30 16:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-30 14:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 56% · 99th percentile
- 2026-09-30 12:15 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-30 08:00 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-30 03:44 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-29 23:29 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-29 19:12 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-29 19:12 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-29 14:55 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-29 10:40 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-29 06:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-29 02:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
- 2026-09-28 21:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-28 21:49 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-rq9p-fw9r-ppg4 · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 7.8
Publicly available exploits
(4 references)Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Metasploit module, 2 Exploit-DB entries, 1 GitHub PoC). No release with the fix is confirmed, so defenders should restrict or isolate affected systems accordingly until one is applied.
- Exploit-DBEDB-37367✓ verifiedPublished Jun 24, 2015
Microsoft Windows - ClientCopyImage Win32k (MS15-051) (Metasploit)
Open source ↗ - Metasploitexploit/windows/local/ms15_051_client_copy_image✓ verifiedPublished Jun 22, 2015
Windows ClientCopyImage Win32k Exploit
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-37049✓ verifiedPublished May 18, 2015
Microsoft Windows - Local Privilege Escalation (MS15-051)
Open source ↗ - GitHub PoChfiref0x/CVE-2015-1701Published May 12, 2015
Win32k LPE vulnerability used in APT attack
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(6)
What is CVE-2015-1701?
When was CVE-2015-1701 made public?
Is CVE-2015-1701 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2015-1701?
Which products are affected by CVE-2015-1701?
How do I remediate CVE-2015-1701?
Dependency Blast Radius
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