CVE-2015-0096
Untrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7…
- 9.3HighCVSS base score
- 71.0%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.6% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 3Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Untrusted search path vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2 and R2 SP1, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 Gold and R2, and Windows RT Gold and 8.1 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, leading to DLL loading during Windows Explorer access to the icon of a crafted shortcut, aka "DLL Planting Remote Code Execution Vulnerability."
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list 2 Metasploit modules and an Exploit-DB entry for it.
Show the exploits3
Metasploit modules2 modules
- Microsoft Windows Shell LNK Code Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/windows/fileformat/ms15_020_shortcut_icon_dllloaderRank excellentdisclosed 10 Mar 2015
- Microsoft Windows Shell LNK Code Execution (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/windows/smb/ms15_020_shortcut_icon_dllloaderRank excellentdisclosed 10 Mar 2015
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Microsoft Windows - Automatic .LNK Shortcut File Code Execution (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 14403local, windowspublished 18 Jul 2010Verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By microsoft
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Published
- 9 years later
· 9 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | High9.3 | AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 71.0% · top 0.6% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 9.3.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
3
- 1031890 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- MS15-020 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_MSx_transferred
- 72894 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2015-0134 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2015-0096)Record last updated .