Executive brief
Windows VOLSNAP.SYS is a system driver that manages Volume Shadow Copy service, a critical component for data backup and disaster recovery on Windows servers and workstations. An authorized attacker can exploit an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in this driver to escalate their privileges and gain elevated access to the system, potentially compromising the entire host.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an out-of-bounds read in the Windows VOLSNAP.SYS kernel driver. The root cause appears to be improper bounds checking in memory access operations within the driver code. The attack requires the attacker to already have valid credentials or local access to initiate the exploit over the network, making this a privilege escalation vulnerability rather than an initial access vector. Successful exploitation allows an authenticated attacker to read memory contents beyond allocated buffers and execute code with kernel privileges. A security patch from Microsoft is expected to address this issue by implementing proper bounds validation.
Affected products
- Microsoft Windows VOLSNAP.SYS
Timeline
- 2026-09-08: disclosed