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Windows 10Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-2022-34720

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
Windows Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Extension Denial of Service 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 · moderate confidence

This is a denial of service vulnerability in the Windows Internet Key Exchange (IKE) extension. IKE is a key management protocol used by IPsec for establishing secure communications. The vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to send specially crafted packets to a target system running IKE, causing the service to become unresponsive or crash.

MitigationApply the Microsoft security updates released for CVE-2022-34720 to affected Windows systems. Organizations using IPsec VPN solutions should prioritize patching perimeter-facing systems.

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= 20h2= 21h1= 21h2= 1607= 1809
Windows 11Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows 7Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows 8.1Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows Rt 8.1Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows Server 2008Operating system
Affected:all versions= r2
Windows Server 2012Operating system
Affected:all versions= r2
Windows Server 2016Operating 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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 Windows version
    Run 'winver' or 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"' to identify the installed Windows version and build number
    Affected if The version matches any of the affected versions listed (Windows 10 versions 20h2, 21h1, 21h2, 1607, 1809; Windows 11 all versions; Windows 7, 8.1, Rt 8.1 all versions; Windows Server 2008/R2, 2012/R2, 2016 all versions)
  2. Verify IKE service is enabled
    Run 'get-service IKEEXT' in PowerShell to check if the IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules service is running. Also check IPsec policy status with 'netsh ipsec dynamic show all'
    Affected if The IKEEXT service is running or IPsec policies are active, indicating IKE is available as an attack surface
  3. Confirm IKE listener is exposed
    Run 'netsh ikeext show sads' to display IKE security associations, and check UDP ports 500 and 4500 are listening with 'netstat -ano | findstr ":500\|:4500"'
    Affected if The system is listening on UDP ports 500 or 4500, meaning it can receive unauthenticated IKE packets from the network
  4. Determine network exposure
    Review firewall rules and VPN configuration to identify if the system is perimeter-facing or directly accessible from untrusted networks using 'netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=all' or checking VPN gateway configuration
    Affected if The system with IKE enabled is directly accessible from untrusted networks (internet-facing VPN gateway, DMZ system, or exposed perimeter host)
  5. Check installed security updates
    Run 'wmic qfe list' or 'Get-HotFix | Sort-Object InstalledOn' in PowerShell to list installed updates, then search for the KB5016611 (Windows Server) or KB5016615 (Windows 10/11) security update
    Affected if The specific CVE-2022-34720 security update is NOT installed on an affected Windows version with IKE exposed

A system is affected if it runs an affected Windows version, has IKE/IPsec enabled and exposed to the network, and is missing the CVE-2022-34720 security update

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 the Microsoft security updates released for CVE-2022-34720 to affected Windows systems. Organizations using IPsec VPN solutions should prioritize patching perimeter-facing systems.

Fix this in Windows 10 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2022-34720 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