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Medium

Internet Explorer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

IdentifiersCVE-2015-0055CWE-269

CVE-2015-0055 is an elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 and 11 addressed by Microsoft Security Update 3034682. According to the provided content, the flaw allows a remote attacker to gain elevated privileges by luring a user to a specially crafted website. Microsoft states the update adds additional permission validations in Internet Explorer, indicating the issue stems from insufficient permission checking within the browser. The vulnerability is categorized as an elevation-of-privilege issue rather than a standalone code-execution flaw, and Microsoft explicitly notes that it does not by itself allow arbitrary code execution and would need to be chained with another vulnerability.

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ANALYST BRIEF

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.

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to elevate privileges in the context of the affected Internet Explorer process or user session. On its own, the vulnerability does not provide arbitrary code execution, but it can be used to bypass intended privilege boundaries and is therefore valuable as part of a multi-stage exploit chain. In practice, this can increase the impact of a separate code-execution vulnerability by helping an attacker obtain higher privileges than would otherwise be available.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

No vulnerability-specific workaround or mitigating factor for this elevation-of-privilege issue is provided in the supplied content. General exposure reduction measures inferred from the bulletin include limiting browsing to untrusted content, reducing opportunities for users to visit attacker-controlled or compromised websites, and using Windows Server systems with Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration where applicable, although this is not presented as a specific mitigation for CVE-2015-0055 itself.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply Microsoft Security Update 3034682 and associated required Internet Explorer updates. The provided content states that for Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11, both update 3021952 and update 3034196 are required for full protection. Microsoft also notes that when installing manually, update 3021952 should be installed before 3034196 to avoid degraded page rendering. On some IE11 platforms, updates 3023607 and 3036197 may also be installed automatically as part of the update chain.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

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.

VendorProductType
Microsoft CorporationInternet Explorerapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

2 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.

2 SOURCESView more in app
What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
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Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.

EXTERNAL REFERENCES
MITRE CVE
cve.org · CVE-2015-0055
NVD
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-0055
MITRE CWE · CWE-269
cwe.mitre.org
securityfocus.com
securityfocus.com/bid/72479
securitytracker.com
securitytracker.com/id/1031723
docs.microsoft.com
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2015/ms15-009