Microsoft has published an advisory for CVE-2026-21238 — an elevation-of-privilege issue in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD, afd.sys) — and the security community is treating it as a high-priority patch-forcing vulnerability for endpoints and servers that accept local...
Microsoft’s advisory for CVE-2026-20831 identifies a kernel-level elevation-of-privilege issue in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (afd.sys) that enables an authenticated local user to escalate to SYSTEM on affected builds — administrators should treat the vendor update as...
Microsoft has published a security update for CVE-2025-60719, an untrusted pointer dereference in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (afd.sys) that can be abused by a local, authenticated attacker to gain elevated privileges; administrators should treat this as a high-priority...
Microsoft’s security channels added CVE-2025-62217 to the public record on November 11, 2025: the flaw is a race condition in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (afd.sys) that can be abused by an authenticated local actor to elevate privileges on affected Windows hosts. Background...
Microsoft’s security channels added CVE-2025-58714 to the record this week: an elevation‑of‑privilege weakness in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (the afd.sys stack) that — if left unpatched on an affected host — lets a locally authorized attacker raise their process context to...
Microsoft’s advisory identifies a vulnerability in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (afd.sys) that can be triggered locally to escalate privileges — described on the vendor page as a buffer overflow in the WinSock ancillary driver — and administrators must treat this as a...
A Proxy Error 429 — the server telling your browser “too many requests” — is one of those transient but productivity-killing problems that can come from either your side (misbehaving scripts, bad proxy configuration, malware) or the server’s side (rate limiting, DDoS protection, load shedding)...
Microsoft’s Security Update Guide entry for CVE-2025-53718 describes a use‑after‑free (UAF) flaw in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys) that can be triggered by a locally authorized user to obtain elevated privileges on affected Windows hosts — a kernel‑level...
Microsoft’s Security Response Guide flags a null-pointer dereference in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys) that, when reached by a local, authorized user, can be weaponized into an elevation‑of‑privilege to SYSTEM — a high‑impact kernel vulnerability that demands...
A use‑after‑free vulnerability in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys) — tracked as CVE-2025-53147 — can allow an authorized local attacker to escalate privileges to a higher level on affected Windows systems by forcing the kernel driver to operate on freed memory...
Microsoft’s advisory confirms that a null pointer dereference in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys) can be triggered by a locally authorized attacker to elevate privileges to SYSTEM, creating a high-impact local elevation-of-privilege (EoP) risk for affected Windows...
A use‑after‑free vulnerability in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys), tracked as CVE-2025-53137, can be abused by an authorized local user to escalate privileges to SYSTEM on affected Windows hosts — a high‑impact kernel vulnerability that follows a string of similar AFD...
Title: What sysadmins need to know about the WinSock AFD race-condition EoP entry you sent (CVE-2025-53134) — situation, risk, and what to do now
Executive summary
You sent the MSRC URL for CVE-2025-53134 (Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock — race condition / improper synchronization...
A recently published Microsoft advisory warns that CVE-2025-49762 — a race-condition flaw in the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock (AFD.sys) — can allow a locally authorized attacker to elevate privileges by exploiting concurrent execution using a shared resource with improper...
Windows can report “No Internet access” while web pages and apps continue to load — a confusing UI mismatch that’s usually harmless but can mask real network problems and make troubleshooting harder. A recent Guiding Tech how‑to lays out the common quick fixes and three deeper repairs —...
active probing
captive portal
dism
dns monitoring
firewall
group policy
internet access
ipv4
ipv6
microsoft connect test
ncsi
network issues
network reset
no internet
registry
sfc
vpn-proxy
windows
windows update
winsock
The cybersecurity landscape for Windows users is continually evolving, with both defenders and attackers persistently engaged in a race for dominance. One of the latest and most critical pieces of this ongoing battle is CVE-2025-32709—a newly disclosed use-after-free vulnerability in the Windows...
A fresh entry in the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) update guide reveals CVE-2025-21418—a vulnerability affecting the Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock. This particular flaw could potentially be exploited to elevate user privileges, posing significant concerns for both...
Following the recent Windows update on August 25-26, I've encountered a persistent issue with Wi-Fi connectivity. Despite holding a valid CompTIA A+ certification and executing a comprehensive set of troubleshooting steps, the problem remains unresolved.
Here’s a detailed summary of my efforts...
adapter
bluetooth
comptia
connectivity
device manager
diagnostics
dns
media disconnected
network
system restore
troubleshooting
update
wifi
windows
winsock
Hello to everyone,
I have an old installation of Windows XP Professional SP3 from November of 2008 and for about 5 years I couldn't boot to Windows because the system was always rebooting due to hardware error and BSOD. Last week I've managed to fix it by using the five files DEFAULT, SAM...
bsod
computer issues
connection issues
dhcp
hardware issues
installation
internet
lan
legacy os
local network
network
professional
repair
router
sp3
system restore
troubleshooting
windows update
windows xp
winsock
My Dell Inspiron laptop running Windows 8.1 will no longer connect to our home network, and diagnostics produce the error "Wi-Fi doesn't have a valid IP configuration". All our other devices are able to communicate with the network and my laptop will communicate with it if booted using ubuntu...