Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 24 Mar 2022.
Windows 2003 ServerOperating system · Microsoft

CVE-2013-5065

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2013-11-28
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
97/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Public exploit 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
NDProxy.sys in the kernel in Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and SP3 and Server 2003 SP2 allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application, as exploited in the wild in November 2013.

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

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in the NDProxy.sys kernel driver on Windows XP SP2/SP3 and Server 2003 SP2. Allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges through a specially crafted application, as exploited in the wild in November 2013.

MitigationPrimary mitigation is upgrading from end-of-life Windows XP/Server 2003 to supported operating systems. If upgrade is not feasible, restrict local access to trusted administrators only and implement network segmentation to limit exposure.

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
Windows 2003 ServerOperating system
Affected:all versions
Windows XpOperating system
Affected:all versions

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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. Identify the Windows version
    Run 'winver' or check System Properties to confirm the Windows version. On the command line, run 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"'
    Affected if The system is running Windows XP (any version) or Windows Server 2003 (any version)
  2. Confirm the NDProxy.sys driver file exists
    Check for the presence of NDProxy.sys in the system drivers directory. Run 'dir %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\NDProxy.sys' or 'if exist %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\NDProxy.sys echo File exists'
    Affected if The NDProxy.sys file exists on the system (required for the vulnerability to apply)
  3. Check if NDProxy service is registered
    Run 'sc query NDProxy' to query the NDProxy service status
    Affected if The NDProxy service is registered on the system, indicating the driver may be available for exploitation

A system is affected if it runs Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 and contains the NDProxy.sys driver, as this combination allows the privilege escalation vulnerability to be exploited.

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
Interim mitigation

Primary mitigation is upgrading from end-of-life Windows XP/Server 2003 to supported operating systems. If upgrade is not feasible, restrict local access to trusted administrators only and implement network segmentation to limit exposure.

Recommended fix High confidence

Windows XP -> Windows 7 SP1 or later; Windows Server 2003 -> Windows Server 2008 R2 or later

  1. Identify all systems running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 in the environment
  2. Backup all critical data, applications, and configurations from affected systems
  3. For Windows XP systems: migrate to Windows 7 SP1 or later, or Windows 10/11
  4. For Windows Server 2003 systems: migrate to Windows Server 2008 R2 or later, or Windows Server 2016/2019/2022
  5. Install the target operating system on replacement hardware or virtual machines
  6. Restore applications and data from backups onto the new systems
  7. Validate that all critical applications function correctly on the new OS
  8. Verify the privilege escalation vulnerability is no longer present
Caveat Windows XP and Server 2003 are end-of-life with no security updates; migration requires hardware/infrastructure changes and application compatibility testing

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

Fix this in Windows 2003 Server Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,400
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $10,240.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-5065 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2013-5065 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