Information security researcher Jonas Lykkegaard told that all versions of Windows 10 released in the past 2.5 years (as well as Windows 11) are vulnerable to the issue dubbed SeriousSAM and HiveNightmare. An attacker can elevate privileges and gain access to user accounts passwords with the help of this bug.

The vulnerability refers to how Windows 10 controls access to files like SAM, SECURITY, and SYSTEM:

C:\Windows\System32\config\sam

C:\Windows\System32\config\security

C:\Windows\System32\config\system

It is worth reminding that these files store information such as hashed passwords for all Windows user accounts, security-related settings, data about encryption keys, and other core OS configuration details. If a potential attacker can read the files, the information obtained will help to gain access to user passwords and critical system settings.

As a rule, only Windows administrator can interact with these files. However, while testing Windows 11, the expert noticed that although the OS restricts access to these files for low-privileged users, the available copies of the files were also being saved in shadow copies. Moreover, it is found that this problem appeared in the Windows 10 code back in 2018, after the release of 1809 version.

Microsoft has already confirmed the issue, which has been assigned the identifier CVE-2021-36934.

Currently, Microsoft is studying an issue and working on a patch.

Source: xakep.ru