CVE-2022-44698

FAQ

What is the relationship between Mark of the Web and Windows SmartScreen?

When you download a file from the internet, Windows adds the zone identifier or Mark of the Web as an NTFS stream to the file. So, when you run the file, Windows SmartScreen checks if there is a zone identifier Alternate Data Stream (ADS) attached to the file. If the ADS indicates ZoneId=3 which means that the file was downloaded from the internet, the SmartScreen does a reputation check. For more information on SmartScreen, please visit Microsoft Defender SmartScreen overview | Microsoft Learn.

According to the CVSS metric, successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to some loss of integrity (I:L) and some loss of availability (A:L). What does that mean for this vulnerability?

An attacker can craft a malicious file that would evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses, resulting in a limited loss of integrity and availability of security features such as Protected View in Microsoft Office, which rely on MOTW tagging.

How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability?

• In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a malicious website that is designed to exploit the security feature bypass.
• In an email or instant message attack scenario, the attacker could send the targeted user a specially crafted .url file that is designed to exploit the bypass.
• Compromised websites or websites that accept or host user-provided content could contain specially crafted content to exploit the security feature bypass.

In all cases an attacker would have no way to force a user to view attacker-controlled content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince a user to take action. For example, an attacker could entice a user to either click a link that directs the user to the attacker's site or send a malicious attachment.

Please see Additional information about Mark of the Web for further clarification