Windows 10Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-2016-0089

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.0 Published 2016-04-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
76/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

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
Hyper-V in Microsoft Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, and Windows 10 allows guest OS users to obtain sensitive information from host OS memory via a crafted application, aka "Hyper-V Information Disclosure 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

This is an information disclosure vulnerability in Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization platform. A malicious guest OS user can craft an application to read sensitive memory contents from the host OS, bypassing isolation boundaries between guest and host. The vulnerability stems from improper memory access controls in the Hyper-V hypervisor.

MitigationApply Microsoft security patches for CVE-2016-0089 to all affected Windows hosts running Hyper-V (Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10). Ensure guest VMs are not granted excessive memory permissions and consider 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 10Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows 8.1Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows Server 2012Operating system
Affected:all versions= r2

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
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

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. Verify Hyper-V role is installed
    Run 'Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V' in PowerShell or check Programs and Features for Hyper-V
    Affected if Hyper-V is enabled and the Windows version is Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012 R2
  2. Confirm Windows version is in affected range
    Run 'winver' or 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"' to identify the exact Windows version
    Affected if Version is Windows 10 (any build), Windows 8.1 (any build), Windows Server 2012 (any build), or Windows Server 2012 R2 (any build)
  3. Check if security update KB3140743 is installed
    Run 'Get-HotFix -Id KB3140743' in PowerShell or view installed updates in Control Panel > Programs > View installed updates
    Affected if The update KB3140743 is NOT installed on the Hyper-V host
  4. Verify memory access controls for guest VMs
    Review Hyper-V VM settings: right-click each VM > Settings > Memory - ensure 'Enable Memory Mirroring' is not configured in a way that exposes host memory to guests, or inspect via 'Get-VMMemory' PowerShell cmdlet
    Affected if Guest VMs have been granted configurations that allow direct memory access or memory mirroring features are enabled without proper host protections

A system is affected if it runs Hyper-V on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2012 R2 AND the security update KB3140743 has not been applied.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Microsoft security patches for CVE-2016-0089 to all affected Windows hosts running Hyper-V (Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10). Ensure guest VMs are not granted excessive memory permissions and consider network segmentation to limit exposure.

Fix this in Windows 10 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,480
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-0089 — 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-2016-0089 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