Windows 10 1607Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-2023-21554

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-04-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.0.14393.5850 / 10.0.17763.4252 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
High EPSS Remotely reachable No privileges 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 Message Queuing (MSMQ) Remote Code Execution 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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-20

The application accepts input without confirming it is well-formed or within expected bounds, so malformed data can push the program into states its author never anticipated. Attackers probe these gaps to trigger crashes, bypass logic, or feed tainted values into more dangerous operations downstream. Remediating it well means validating and normalising every input at the boundary against a strict allow-list — not merely filtering known-bad values.

General guidance for the improper input validation class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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 10 1607Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.14393.5850
Windows 10 1809Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.17763.4252
Windows 10 20h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19042.2846
Windows 10 21h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19044.2846
Windows 10 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19045.2846
Windows 11 21h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22000.1817
Windows 11 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22621.1555
Windows Server 2008Operating 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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 10.0.14393.5850 / 10.0.17763.4252 / 10.0.19042.2846 or later
Fixed in 10.0.14393.585010.0.17763.425210.0.19042.2846
Vendor patch msrc.microsoft.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Windows 10 1607: 10.0.14393.5850 or later | Windows 10 1809: 10.0.17763.4252 or later | Windows 10 20h2: 10.0.19042.2846 or later | Windows 10 21h2: 10.0.19044.2846 or later | Windows 10 22h2: 10.0.19045.2846 or later | Windows 11 21h2: 10.0.22000.1817 or later | Windows 11 22h2: 10.0.22621.1555 or

  1. Check current Windows version by running 'winver' or 'systeminfo' in Command Prompt
  2. Identify if MSMQ (Microsoft Message Queuing) component is installed by checking 'Programs and Features' > 'Turn Windows features on or off' for 'Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) Server'
  3. Apply the appropriate Microsoft security update from https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2023-21554 based on your Windows version
  4. Restart the system after applying the security update
  5. Verify the patch was applied by checking Windows Update history for the KB corresponding to CVE-2023-21554
Caveat Windows Server 2008/R2 has no patch available (EOL); consider migrating to supported Windows version or disable MSMQ if not needed

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $2,300. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-21554 — 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-2023-21554 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