Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 21 Oct 2022. Known ransomware use
Exchange ServerApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2022-41040

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Developing Published 2022-10-03
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 Ransomware High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable Zero-click 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 Exchange Server Elevation of Privilege 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 · low confidence
Developing — this CVE was published recently and its authoritative NVD entry is still being established, so we're holding a technical summary until the source data settles rather than publish something unreliable. Re-checking after 2026-08-23.

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
Exchange ServerApplication
Affected:= 2013= 2016= 2019

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 msrc.microsoft.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Exchange Server 2019 CU12+ / Exchange Server 2016 CU23+ / Exchange Server 2013 November 2022 SU (final)

  1. 1. Identify the current Exchange Server version by running: Get-ExchangeServer | Format-List Name,Edition,Version
  2. 2. For Exchange Server 2019: Upgrade to Cumulative Update 12 or later (released November 2022)
  3. 3. For Exchange Server 2016: Upgrade to Cumulative Update 23 or later (released November 2022)
  4. 4. For Exchange Server 2013: Microsoft released a final Security Update (SU) in November 2022; strongly consider migrating to a supported version (2016 or 2019) as Exchange 2013 reached extended support end
  5. 5. Before upgrading, review the release notes and ensure compatibility with existing systems
  6. 6. After applying the update, verify the server is running the patched version using: Get-ExchangeServer | Format-List Name,Edition,Version
  7. 7. Monitor for any post-installation issues in the Exchange event logs
Caveat Exchange 2013 November 2022 SU is the final update; no further patches will be released - migration to 2016/2019 required. CU upgrades require downtime and may have schema changes - test in non-production first.

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

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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-2022-41040 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