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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 3 Jun 2026.
Internet ExplorerApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2010-0249

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2010-01-15
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 6 SP1, 7, and 8 on Windows 2000 SP4; Windows XP SP2 and SP3; Windows Server 2003 SP2; Windows Vista Gold, SP1, and SP2; Windows Server 2008 Gold, SP2, and R2; and Windows 7 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by accessing a pointer associated with a deleted object, related to incorrectly initialized memory and improper handling of objects in memory, as exploited in the wild in December 2009 and January 2010 during Operation Aurora, aka "HTML Object Memory Corruption Vulnerability."

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Use-after-free vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by accessing a pointer associated with a deleted object. The flaw stems from incorrectly initialized memory and improper handling of HTML objects in memory. This vulnerability was actively exploited in the wild during Operation Aurora in December 2009 and January 2010.

MitigationApply Microsoft security update MS10-002. For legacy systems that cannot be patched, employ Microsoft EMET or migrate to a supported browser. Remove or disable vulnerable Internet Explorer versions where possible.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Internet ExplorerApplication
Affected:= 5.0.1= 6= 7.0= 8

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed Internet Explorer version via UI
    Open Internet Explorer, click Help in the menu bar, then select About Internet Explorer. Record the version number shown in the dialog.
    Affected if the displayed version is 5.0.1, 6, 7.0, or 8.0
  2. Check installed Internet Explorer version via registry
    Open Command Prompt and run: reg query "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v Version
    Affected if the Version value returned is 5.0.1, 6, 7.0, or 8.0
  3. Confirm 32-bit or 64-bit IE version (optional)
    For 64-bit Windows, also check HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer for the Version value if the primary key does not show an affected version
    Affected if any IE installation under either registry path shows version 5.0.1, 6, 7.0, or 8.0

You are affected if any installed Internet Explorer instance reports version 5.0.1, 6, 7.0, or 8.0 and the browser is used to render untrusted HTML content.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch support.microsoft.com →
Interim mitigation

Apply Microsoft security update MS10-002. For legacy systems that cannot be patched, employ Microsoft EMET or migrate to a supported browser. Remove or disable vulnerable Internet Explorer versions where possible.

Recommended fix High confidence

Internet Explorer 11 (or Microsoft Edge on Windows 10/11)

  1. 1. Upgrade Internet Explorer to a version beyond IE8. For Windows 7 and earlier, install Internet Explorer 11 from Microsoft Update or the Microsoft Download Center.
  2. 2. For Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10, use Microsoft Edge as the default browser instead of Internet Explorer.
  3. 3. If upgrading Internet Explorer is not possible on legacy systems, ensure Windows Update is fully applied to receive the latest security patches.
  4. 4. Consider migrating to a supported operating system (Windows 10 or 11) if the system cannot support IE11, as Windows 7 extended support ended in January 2020.
Caveat Legacy web applications designed for IE6-8 may not function properly in IE11; testing in compatibility mode or maintaining legacy browsers for specific internal applications may be required

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Internet Explorer Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-0249 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2010-0249 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data