How severe is CVE-2015-1701?

CVE-2015-1701 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH). EPSS estimates a 55.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

CVE-2015-1701: Microsoft Win32k Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

Microsoft Win32k Privilege Escalation Vulnerability is confirmed as actively exploited and is listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Added to KEV

2022-03-03

Remediation due

2022-03-24

Ransomware

Known use

Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

CISA notes
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-1701

Description

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."

Severity

CVSS 3.1 · CISA7.8 HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

SSVC · CISA-ADP

Exploitationactive

Automatableno

Technical impacttotal

Exploitation Context

as of October 13, 2026

All KEV statistics→

CISA added CVE-2015-1701 to the KEV catalog 2,508 days after its CVE record was published.
It is one of 390 Microsoft entries in the CISA KEV catalog, and one of 166 added in 2022.
Its current EPSS score (55.9%) is higher than that of 52% of CISA KEV entries.

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Affected versions
-	-	n/a

References

8 Links

Vendor advisories

MS15-051

Exploits & PoCs

Mailing lists

20200514 KL-001-2020-002 : Cellebrite Restricted Desktop Escape and Escalation of User Privilege

Vulnerability databases

Other references

Record Details

Published

2015-04-21

Last updated

2026-08-14

Assigner (CNA)

microsoft

Credited to

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CVE record data © The MITRE Corporation, used under the CVE Terms of Use. Exploited-in-the-wild data from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (CC0). Exploit prediction scores by FIRST EPSS (first.org/epss). This site is not endorsed or certified by MITRE, NVD, CISA, or FIRST.