Microsoft Reclassifies SPNEGO Extended Negotiation Security Vulnerability as 'Critical'
Dec 15, 2022
Windows Security / Network Security
Microsoft has revised the severity of a security vulnerability it originally patched in September 2022 , upgrading it to "Critical" after it emerged that it could be exploited to achieve remote code execution. Tracked as CVE-2022-37958 (CVSS score: 8.1), the flaw was previously described as an information disclosure vulnerability in SPNEGO Extended Negotiation ( NEGOEX ) Security Mechanism. SPNEGO, short for Simple and Protected GSSAPI Negotiation Mechanism (SPNEGO), is a scheme that allows a client and remote server to arrive at a consensus on the choice of the protocol to be used (e.g., Kerberos or NTLM) for authentication. But a further analysis of the flaw by IBM Security X-Force researcher Valentina Palmiotti found that it could allow remote execution of arbitrary code, prompting Microsoft to reclassify its severity. "This vulnerability is a pre-authentication remote code execution vulnerability impacting a wide range of protocols," IBM said this