Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Improper Restriction of Operations Vulnerability

Added to KEV
2022-03-03
Federal due date
2022-03-24
Vendor
Microsoft
Product
Malware Protection Engine
EPSS
99.1th percentile (score 0.794, as of 2026-06-08)
NVD CVSS v3.1
Ransomware use
Unknown
Upstream
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-8540

CISA short description

The Microsoft Malware Protection Engine running on Microsoft Forefront and Microsoft Defender on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, Windows RT 8.1, Windows 10 Gold, 1511, 1607, and 1703, and Windows Server 2016, Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and 2016, does not properly scan a specially crafted file leading to memory corruption. aka "Microsoft Malware Protection Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability".

Required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

EPSS percentile is the FIRST.org exploit-probability ranking as of the date noted above; it moves daily. CVSS reflects NVD's analysis at time of publication.