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MS Paint Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

418 points • by kuberwastaken • yesterday at 8:43 PM • 157 comments • view on HN

Comments

pasteleft • today at 2:28 AM

Paint can exectue arbitrary code from the REMOTE, without USER INTERACTION?????

We seriously need more information.

Oarch • yesterday at 10:08 PM

I can't wait for the Raymond Chen write up one day.

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greyhound1 • yesterday at 10:35 PM

Had to go to Microsoft Store to get the fixed version, Windows Update didn't show anything.

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everylostbit • yesterday at 10:20 PM

This seems to affect only paint 11.0.0.0 up to, but not including, 11.2605.91.0. For folks like me, running a much older version, its probably safe, although its Windows so, I'm not too sure.

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xlayn • today at 12:27 AM

WHY ON HELL paint has a remote code execution in the name of God? WHY? is this because someone who needs to build a CV decided to network something on ..... I can't come with a reason why "An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted packet to an affected service over the network." will cause paint to start being nice to an attacker and leaking crypto secrets etc.. the thing says sending a specially crafted packet.. this means windows is part of the attack vector, but that just makes the WHY bigger, really, why?

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what_hn • yesterday at 11:34 PM

Paint opens a port?

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ajasmin • yesterday at 10:04 PM

What Network?

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protocolture • today at 3:02 AM

Hold up.

"No User Interaction"

Does that mean that paint doesnt have to be running?

Application being installed on a PC allows a specially crafted packet to arbitrarily execute code?

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layer8 • yesterday at 9:24 PM

Fixed in version 11.2609.401.0.

patrick_rtk • yesterday at 10:29 PM

wow thoses days are amazing. cve: AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

UI:N it is with no interaction ?

is it a cve mistake ?

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darepublic • today at 12:48 AM

Is this old or new paint

dmitrygr • yesterday at 11:15 PM

Oh, this is the modern "paint" trash, not mspaint.exe that i still use, copied out of x64 XP build, together with calc.exe

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sreekanth850 • today at 2:26 AM

LLMs are now unfolding decades of technical debt, poorly written code, and security vulnerabilities accumulated in software built by humans.

Razengan • today at 2:05 AM

Of course.

TZubiri • yesterday at 9:37 PM

>Exploit Code Maturity

>Unproven

>Remediation Level

>Official Fix

>Report Confidence

>Confirmed

I really like these secondary scoring factors, not just scoring the vuln itself, but how it's being attacked.

paulpauper • yesterday at 11:14 PM

is this as bad as Windows Metafile (WMF) Exploit?

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smjy_studio • today at 2:01 AM

[flagged]

italiansolider • today at 3:52 AM

[dead]

sick_of_slop • today at 1:46 AM

[dead]

pmkary • today at 5:45 AM

I love Microsoft! Who else might look at a fully offline drawing app and think: "Man this needs the most severe level of networking access capable of remote code execution", and that surely is to put their useless Copilot to absolutely nowhere. Next headline will be "All user credentials stolen from Notepad"

falcor84 • yesterday at 9:01 PM

Wow! At first sight I was sure it was a joke, but no. What a time...

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...

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6thbit • today at 12:12 AM

I'm just in full denial that paint runs a server. Happy to be corrected if someone has a windows machine handy to verify.

But From [0]: > A total of 59 of the October CVEs fit my definition of wormable. Specifically, 57 contain both “An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted packet to an affected service over the network” and “No authentication or user interaction is required.”

Makes you wonder if MS is just copy-pasting boilerplate on CVEs and disclosed incorrectly the scope of the one in Paint because they had 56 other bugs to disclose.

So I'm not discounting reporting human error here, yet.

[0] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2026/10/13/the-octobe...

drillsteps5 • today at 4:32 AM

https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...

States:

> Attack Vector: Network

> The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet.

The way I read it is MSPaint is now running as a service and listens to a port (while running? all the time?) and you can trigger remote execute by sending data. Just.. Why?..

tosti • yesterday at 9:05 PM

Code execution, sure, paint has been used to write executable code too, so why not.

But remote? How

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IFC_LLC • today at 12:52 AM

At this point I want to declare that air-gapped network with the transfer only over USB drives is a viable and valuable method of handling IT security. Outside transfer only happens by people manually copying text onto a floppy and reading it from a floppy.

I just... It's just ridiculous at this point.

durmusk • today at 5:09 AM

Does this effect the regular Win32 Paint? Who uses the app store crap anyway?

itopaloglu83 • yesterday at 10:18 PM

First the notepad CVE and now this, Microsoft is on a roll.

JeppyG • today at 1:35 AM

What's next, the space cadet pinball game lol... although jokes on them, I would only play it if I didn't have internet.

xg15 • yesterday at 10:54 PM

Waiting for the 0day RCE in Solitaire next...

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caust1c • yesterday at 10:27 PM

Looking forward to the CALC.EXE RCE next, so we can pop calc while we pop calc!

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tonyhart7 • today at 5:01 AM

Yep, AI gonna end all software and we come back to air gapped system

hmartin • today at 2:34 AM

The calendar app and my internal clock disagree, is it April 1 today or no?

reader9274 • today at 12:24 AM

Finally my childhood abstract Paint art can take over a server

AlienRobot • today at 12:00 AM

I miss when MS Paint just opened image files and let you do some basic editing, before layers, background removal and RCE's...

arm32 • yesterday at 9:39 PM

Patch your MS Paint, everybody!

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kittikitti • today at 1:58 AM

If ain't broke don't fix it! Why did they change MS Paint! The campy memes will never be the same.

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mmargenot • yesterday at 10:15 PM

no my beloved

rarisma • yesterday at 9:49 PM

rce in paint i guess bro