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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 4 May 2022.
Internet ExplorerApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2015-2502

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2015-08-19
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 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
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 through 11 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted web site, aka "Memory Corruption Vulnerability," as exploited in the wild in August 2015.

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

Memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 7 through 11 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted malicious website. The vulnerability was actively exploited in the wild in August 2015, leveraging memory manipulation to achieve code execution outside the browser's sandbox.

MitigationApply the Microsoft security update MS15-106 (or subsequent cumulative update) to patch the vulnerability, or migrate to a newer browser version. For organizations unable to patch immediately, employ EMET or alternative browsers and restrict browser access to trusted sites only.

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:= 7= 8= 9= 10= 11

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 if Internet Explorer is installed
    Open Command Prompt and run: reg query 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer' /v Version
    Affected if The registry key exists and returns a version value
  2. Determine the exact Internet Explorer version
    In the same registry key, examine the Version value (e.g., 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0)
    Affected if Version is 7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, or 11.0 (all are affected by CVE-2015-2502)
  3. Verify IE is accessible or in use
    Check if iexplore.exe exists in Program Files or Program Files (x86), or check running processes for iexplore.exe
    Affected if Internet Explorer executables are present on the system and the browser could be launched

If Internet Explorer versions 7 through 11 are installed on the system, the environment is affected by this vulnerability when the browser is used to visit untrusted websites.

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 docs.microsoft.com →
Interim mitigation

Apply the Microsoft security update MS15-106 (or subsequent cumulative update) to patch the vulnerability, or migrate to a newer browser version. For organizations unable to patch immediately, employ EMET or alternative browsers and restrict browser access to trusted sites only.

Recommended fix High confidence

Apply MS15-106 security update; for long-term fix, migrate to a supported Windows version with modern browser (Edge)

  1. Apply Microsoft Security Update MS15-106 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer), which addresses CVE-2015-2502. This update can be obtained via Windows Update or the Microsoft Download Center.
  2. If running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2, ensure MS15-106 is installed through Windows Update.
  3. If running Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, or Windows 10, ensure all subsequent cumulative updates are applied.
  4. After patching, verify the Internet Explorer version includes the fix (the exact version varies by Windows release).
  5. Consider migrating to Microsoft Edge if the Windows version supports it, as Internet Explorer 7-10 are deprecated.
Caveat IE 7-10 are deprecated; some legacy web applications may not function in newer browsers

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

Fix this in Internet Explorer Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-2502 — 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-2015-2502 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