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Windows 10Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-2023-36606

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-10-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.0.10240.20232 / 10.0.14393.6351 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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) 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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-400

A single request can consume unbounded CPU, memory, or connections, so a modest amount of malicious traffic exhausts the service. The result is denial of service for everyone else. Remediation is enforcing limits, quotas, and timeouts on what any one request can use.

General guidance for the uncontrolled resource consumption 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 10Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.10240.20232
Windows 10 1607Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.14393.6351
Windows 10 1809Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.17763.4974
Windows 10 21h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19041.3570
Windows 10 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.19045.3570
Windows 11 21h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22000.2538
Windows 11 22h2Operating system
Affected:< 10.0.22621.2428
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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 10.0.10240.20232 / 10.0.14393.6351 / 10.0.17763.4974 or later
Fixed in 10.0.10240.2023210.0.14393.635110.0.17763.4974
Vendor patch msrc.microsoft.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Windows security update KB5027222 or subsequent monthly rollup containing CVE-2023-36606 patch (exact build numbers: 10.0.10240.20232, 10.0.14393.6351, 10.0.17763.4974, 10.0.19041.3570, 10.0.19045.3570, 10.0.22000.2538, 10.0.22621.2428 depending on Windows release)

  1. 1. Identify the exact Windows version currently installed by running 'winver' or 'systeminfo' in command prompt
  2. 2. Check if your version is vulnerable by comparing against the fixed build numbers: Windows 10 (10240.20232), 10 1607 (14393.6351), 10 1809 (17763.4974), 10 21h2 (19041.3570), 10 22h2 (19045.3570), Windows 11 21h2 (22000.2538), Windows 11 22h2 (22621.2428)
  3. 3. For Windows 10/11: Open Windows Update (Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update) and install all available security updates
  4. 4. For WSUS-managed environments: Synchronize and approve the relevant security update for CVE-2023-36606
  5. 5. Alternatively, manually download the specific security update from Microsoft Update Catalog based on your OS version and architecture
  6. 6. After installation, restart the system to apply the MSMQ vulnerability patch
  7. 7. Verify the update was installed by checking Windows Update history or running 'systeminfo' to confirm the new build number matches or exceeds the fixed version for your Windows release
Caveat Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 reached end of support with no patch available - requires migration to supported Windows Server version; ensure compatibility with line-of-business applications before updating

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 $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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-2023-36606 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