Local privilege escalation in Windows NT/2000 smss.exe debugging subsystem (handle duplication)
smss.exe debugging subsystem in Windows NT and Windows 2000 does not properly authenticate programs that connect to other programs, allowing a local user to gain administrator/SYSTEM privileges by duplicating a handle to a privileged process (e.g., as demonstrated by DebPloit).
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Exploits
No valid public exploits. Mallory filtered out 1 candidate as fakes, detection scripts, or README-only repos.
All candidate exploits were filtered out by Mallory's validation.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
3 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows NT/2000 smss.exe debugging subsystem (CVE-2002-0367), known to be used in ransomware attacks.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows NT and Windows 2000, still exploited by ransomware groups as of 2025.
A privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows NT and Windows 2000 smss.exe debugging subsystem, known to be used by ransomware groups.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.