CVE-2016-7255

CRITICALNVD 7.89.0▲
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 9.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 5 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
9.0EG
EchelonGraph verdictMitigate nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS PROB: 81%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: cisa kev · ssvc active · kev ransomware · epss top5pct · epss high · public exploitExposed services: Not assessed

No fix is confirmed yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for the fix.

The kernel-mode drivers in Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, Windows RT 8.1, Windows 10 Gold, 1511, and 1607, and Windows Server 2016 allow local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka "Win32k Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability."

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
9.0CRITICALhigh confidence
EG Risk
81
EG Risk 81/100CISA SSVC

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
Severity90% × 45%
Exploitation100% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.
Action: No fix is confirmed yet. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact, and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix.
EPSS PROB
81%
EPSS %ILE
99th
KEV
⚠ Exploited

CISA SSVCTrack at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.

No fix is confirmed yet. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact, and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix.

Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

November 10, 2016

Last Modified

September 10, 2026

Advisory Details (7)

Auto-updated May 19, 2026
⚠️ Active exploitation confirmed. No patch confirmed yet.
generic🟡 PoC Available

Microsoft Windows Kernel - 'win32k.sys NtSetWindowLongPtr' Local Privilege Escalation (MS16-135) (1) - Windows local Exploit

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40823/
generic🟡 PoC Available

Microsoft Windows Kernel - 'win32k' Denial of Service (MS16-135) - Windows dos Exploit

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40745/
generic🔴 Active Exploitation

Google Online Security Blog: Disclosing vulnerabilities to protect users

https://security.googleblog.com/2016/10/disclosing-vulnerabilities-to-protect.html
generic🔴 Active Exploitation

GitHub - FSecureLABS/CVE-2016-7255: An exploit for CVE-2016-7255 on Windows 7/8/8.1/10(pre-anniversary) 64 bit · GitHub

https://github.com/mwrlabs/CVE-2016-7255
generic

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS16-135 - Important | Microsoft Learn

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2016/ms16-135
generic
http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1037251
generic
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/94064

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2016-7255(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 90× in last 7d / 399× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. 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. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 1,635 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-10-04 11:55 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-10-04 11:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-10-04 08:01 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-10-04 08:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-10-04 04:05 UTCVendor advisory
  6. 2026-10-04 04:05 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-10-04 00:11 UTCVendor advisory
  8. 2026-10-04 00:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-10-03 20:18 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-10-03 20:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-10-03 16:22 UTCVendor advisory
  12. 2026-10-03 16:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-10-03 12:29 UTCVendor advisory
  14. 2026-10-03 12:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-10-03 08:34 UTCVendor advisory
  16. 2026-10-03 08:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-10-03 04:39 UTCVendor advisory
  18. 2026-10-03 04:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-10-03 00:43 UTCVendor advisory
  20. 2026-10-03 00:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-10-02 20:49 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-10-02 20:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-10-02 16:55 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-10-02 16:55 UTCVendor advisory
  25. 2026-10-02 16:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-10-02 13:01 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-10-02 13:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-10-02 09:07 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-10-02 09:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-10-02 05:14 UTCVendor advisory
  6. 2026-10-02 05:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-10-02 01:18 UTCVendor advisory
  8. 2026-10-02 01:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-10-01 21:24 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-10-01 21:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-10-01 17:30 UTCVendor advisory
  12. 2026-10-01 17:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-10-01 13:36 UTCVendor advisory
  14. 2026-10-01 13:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-10-01 09:42 UTCVendor advisory
  16. 2026-10-01 09:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-10-01 05:49 UTCVendor advisory
  18. 2026-10-01 05:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-10-01 01:55 UTCVendor advisory
  20. 2026-10-01 01:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-09-30 22:01 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-09-30 22:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-09-30 18:07 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-09-30 18:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-09-30 14:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-09-30 14:14 UTCVendor advisory
  27. 2026-09-30 14:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  28. 2026-09-30 10:19 UTCVendor advisory
  29. 2026-09-30 10:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  30. 2026-09-30 06:24 UTCVendor advisory
  31. 2026-09-30 06:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  32. 2026-09-30 02:29 UTCVendor advisory
  33. 2026-09-30 02:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  34. 2026-09-29 22:35 UTCVendor advisory
  35. 2026-09-29 22:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-09-29 18:41 UTCVendor advisory
  37. 2026-09-29 18:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  38. 2026-09-29 14:46 UTCVendor advisory
  39. 2026-09-29 14:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  40. 2026-09-29 10:49 UTCVendor advisory
  41. 2026-09-29 10:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  42. 2026-09-29 06:55 UTCVendor advisory
  43. 2026-09-29 06:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  44. 2026-09-29 03:01 UTCVendor advisory
  45. 2026-09-29 03:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  46. 2026-09-28 23:07 UTCEG score recompute
  47. 2026-09-28 23:07 UTCVendor advisory
  48. 2026-09-28 23:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  49. 2026-09-28 19:11 UTCVendor advisory
  50. 2026-09-28 19:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  51. 2026-09-28 15:13 UTCVendor advisory
  52. 2026-09-28 15:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  53. 2026-09-28 11:19 UTCVendor advisory
  54. 2026-09-28 11:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  55. 2026-09-28 07:25 UTCVendor advisory
  56. 2026-09-28 07:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
  57. 2026-09-28 03:31 UTCVendor advisory
  58. 2026-09-28 03:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-09-27 23:38 UTCVendor advisory
  60. 2026-09-27 23:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  61. 2026-09-27 21:51 UTCCISA KEV update
  62. 2026-09-27 19:41 UTCVendor advisory
  63. 2026-09-27 19:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  64. 2026-09-27 15:46 UTCVendor advisory
  65. 2026-09-27 15:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  66. 2026-09-27 11:51 UTCVendor advisory
  67. 2026-09-27 11:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  68. 2026-09-27 07:58 UTCVendor advisory
  69. 2026-09-27 07:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  70. 2026-09-27 04:04 UTCVendor advisory
  71. 2026-09-27 04:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  72. 2026-09-27 00:10 UTCVendor advisory
  73. 2026-09-27 00:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  74. 2026-09-26 20:14 UTCVendor advisory
  75. 2026-09-26 20:14 UTCGHSA enrichment

Publicly available exploits

(6 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (3 GitHub PoCs) (3 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCyuvatia/page-table-exploitation
    First seen Jun 9, 2018

    A demonstration of how page tables can be used to run arbitrary code in ring-0 and lead to a privesc. Uses CVE-2016-7255 as an example.

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCFSecureLABS/CVE-2016-7255
    First seen Mar 2, 2017

    An exploit for CVE-2016-7255 on Windows 7/8/8.1/10(pre-anniversary) 64 bit

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCheh3/CVE-2016-7255
    First seen Jan 13, 2017
    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-41015
    First seen Jan 8, 2017

    Microsoft Windows Kernel - 'win32k.sys NtSetWindowLongPtr' Local Privilege Escalation (MS16-135) (2)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-40823
    First seen Nov 24, 2016

    Microsoft Windows Kernel - 'win32k.sys NtSetWindowLongPtr' Local Privilege Escalation (MS16-135) (1)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-40745
    First seen Nov 9, 2016

    Microsoft Windows Kernel - 'win32k' Denial of Service (MS16-135)

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2016-7255?
CVE-2016-7255 is a critical vulnerability published on November 10, 2016. The kernel-mode drivers in Microsoft Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, Windows RT 8.1, Windows 10 Gold, 1511, and 1607, and Windows Server 2016 allow local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, aka…
When was CVE-2016-7255 disclosed?
CVE-2016-7255 was first published on November 10, 2016, with the most recent update on September 10, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2016-7255 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2016-7255 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on November 3, 2021, affecting Microsoft Win32k. KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate attention. No fix is confirmed yet. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation, and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2016-7255?
CVE-2016-7255 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD). EchelonGraph synthesises NVD + CISA KEV + FIRST EPSS + GHSA into a combined EG score of 9.0 (CRITICAL).
Which products are affected by CVE-2016-7255?
CVE-2016-7255 affects Microsoft Win32k.
How do I remediate CVE-2016-7255?
No fix for CVE-2016-7255 is confirmed yet. Until one is published, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation — for example, keep it off the internet or limit it to trusted networks — and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2016-7255 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

Dependency Blast Radius

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