Skip to content

GHSA-6qmx-42h2-j8h6 BIT-dotnet-2024-21409 BIT-dotnet-sdk-2024-21409 BIT-powershell-2024-21409 CVE-2024-21409

.NET Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

High NuGet
Severity
7.3 / 10
High · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
2.51%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 84.79% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-416 Use After Free
Fix
Available
3 packages have a fixed version

Description

Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2024-21409 | .NET Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

<a name="executive-summary"></a>Executive summary

Microsoft is releasing this security advisory to provide information about a vulnerability in .NET 6.0, .NET 7.0 ,and .NET 8.0. This advisory also provides guidance on what developers can do to update their applications to remove this vulnerability.

A use-after-free vulnerability exists in WPF which may result in Elevation of Privilege when viewing untrusted documents. This is a Windows only vulnerability.

Announcement

Announcement for this issue can be found at https://github.com/dotnet/announcements/issues/303

<a name="mitigation-factors"></a>Mitigation factors

This vulnerability affects only WPF-based applications.

<a name="affected-software"></a>Affected software

  • Any .NET 6.0 application running on .NET 6.0.28 or earlier.
  • Any .NET 7.0 application running on .NET 7.0.17 or earlier.
  • Any .NET 8.0 application running on .NET 8.0.3 or earlier.

<a name="affected-packages"></a>Affected Packages

The vulnerability affects any Microsoft .NET Core project if it uses any of affected packages versions listed below

<a name=".NET 7"></a>.NET 6.0
Package name Affected version Patched version
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64 < = 6.0.28 6.0.29
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x64 < = 6.0.28 6.0.29
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x86 < = 6.0.28 6.0.29
<a name=".NET 7"></a>.NET 7.0
Package name Affected version Patched version
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64 <= 7.0.17 7.0.18
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x64 <= 7.0.17 7.0.18
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x86 <= 7.0.17 7.0.18
<a name=".NET 7"></a>.NET 8.0
Package name Affected version Patched version
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64 <= 8.0.3 8.0.4
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x64 <= 8.0.3 8.0.4
Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x86 <= 8.0.3 8.0.4

Advisory FAQ

<a name="how-affected"></a>How do I know if I am affected?

If you have a runtime or SDK with a version listed, or an affected package listed in affected software or affected packages, you're exposed to the vulnerability.

<a name="how-fix"></a>How do I fix the issue?
  • To fix the issue please install the latest version of .NET 8.0 or .NET 7.0 or .NET 6.0. If you have installed one or more .NET SDKs through Visual Studio, Visual Studio will prompt you to update Visual Studio, which will also update your .NET SDKs.
  • If you have .NET 6.0 or greater installed, you can list the versions you have installed by running the dotnet --info command. You will see output like the following;
.NET Core SDK (reflecting any global.json):


 Version:   8.0.204
 Commit:    8473146e7d

Runtime Environment:

 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.18363
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.300\

Host (useful for support):

  Version: 8.0.4
  Commit:  8473146e7d

.NET Core SDKs installed:

  8.0.204 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET Core runtimes installed:

  Microsoft.AspWindowsDesktop.App 8.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspWindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 8.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]


To install additional .NET Core runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

.NET 6.0, .NET 7.0 and, .NET 8.0 updates are also available from Microsoft Update. To access this either type "Check for updates" in your Windows search, or open Settings, choose Update & Security and then click Check for Updates.

Once you have installed the updated runtime or SDK, restart your apps for the update to take effect.

Additionally, if you've deployed self-contained applications targeting any of the impacted versions, these applications are also vulnerable and must be recompiled and redeployed.

Other Information

Reporting Security Issues

If you have found a potential security issue in .NET 8.0 or .NET 7.0 or .NET 6.0, please email details to secure@microsoft.com. Reports may qualify for the Microsoft .NET Core & .NET 5 Bounty. Details of the Microsoft .NET Bounty Program including terms and conditions are at https://aka.ms/corebounty.

Support

You can ask questions about this issue on GitHub in the .NET GitHub organization. The main repos are located at https://github.com/dotnet/runtime and https://github.com/dotnet/aspnet/. The Announcements repo (https://github.com/dotnet/Announcements) will contain this bulletin as an issue and will include a link to a discussion issue. You can ask questions in the linked discussion issue.

Disclaimer

The information provided in this advisory is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Microsoft disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if Microsoft Corporation or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply.

External Links

CVE-2024-21409

Revisions

V1.0 (April 09, 2024): Advisory published.

Version 1.0

Last Updated 2024-04-09

Affected versions

NuGet

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64 NuGet → 6.0.29

dotnet
dotnet add package Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64 --version 6.0.29

Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x64 NuGet → 6.0.29

dotnet
dotnet add package Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x64 --version 6.0.29

Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x86 NuGet → 7.0.18

dotnet
dotnet add package Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-x86 --version 7.0.18

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 7.3

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Weakness

CWE-416: Use After Free

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design: Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
  • Implementation: When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-g44w-h65v-4cw9
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-96235 - .NET and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
High Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-fq6x-pvr9-888r
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-96234 - .NET and Visual Studio Information Disclosure Vulnerability
Medium Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-f8qh-mqg4-9939
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-96232 - .NET and Visual Studio Information Disclosure Vulnerability
High Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-5qr9-xxm9-6cmq
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-96229 - .NET and Visual Studio Information Disclosure Vulnerability
Medium Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-xq57-crx4-g373
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-96224 - .NET and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
High Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-c27m-942f-rcfh
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-87697 - .NET and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
High Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-f63g-mx39-3r38
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-85363 - .NET and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
High Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
GHSA-4w5f-7jp2-w48g
Microsoft Security Advisory CVE-2026-83520 - .NET and Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
High Also affects Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App.Runtime.win-arm64
Is this in your code?

MergeHarbor checks every repository's dependencies against this database, ranks what matters by exploitability and reachability, routes it to the owning team and opens the fix pull request.

Check your repos with MergeHarbor