CVE-2018-7250
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in secdrv.sys as shipped in Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 before KB3086255, and as shipped in Macrovision SafeDisc. An uninitialized kernel pool allocation in IOCTL 0xCA002813 allows a local unprivileged attacker to leak 16 bits of uninitialized kernel PagedPool data.
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 confidencesecdrv.sys, a kernel driver shipped with Windows Vista through 8.1 and Macrovision SafeDisc, contains an information disclosure vulnerability. The driver fails to initialize kernel pool memory in IOCTL 0xCA002813, allowing a local unprivileged attacker to read 16 bits of uninitialized PagedPool data. This leaked kernel memory could potentially be used in conjunction with other vulnerabilities for privilege escalation.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Windows version is in affected rangeRun 'winver' or check system properties to verify the Windows version. Affected versions are Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 (all editions).Affected if The system runs Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1.
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Locate secdrv.sys driver fileSearch for secdrv.sys in the Windows\System32\drivers directory or use 'where /r C:\ secdrv.sys' command.Affected if The secdrv.sys file exists on the system.
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Check if secdrv.sys driver is loadedRun 'sc query secdrv' or check driver list via 'driverquery /v' to see if the driver is currently loaded in memory.Affected if The secdrv.sys driver is currently loaded and running.
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Verify driver is accessible to unprivileged usersCheck file permissions on secdrv.sys using 'icacls C:\Windows\System32\drivers\secdrv.sys' - the vulnerability is exploitable by local unprivileged attackers.Affected if Unprivileged users can access or interact with the driver.
If the system runs Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1 and contains the secdrv.sys driver (especially if loaded), the environment is likely affected by this information disclosure vulnerability.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataApply Microsoft KB3086255 to affected Windows systems. If SafeDisc is no longer needed, remove or disable the secdrv.sys driver to eliminate the attack surface.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-7250 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-7250 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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