CVE-2022-26809: 
vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Remote Procedure Call Runtime Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (CVE-2022-26809) was disclosed in April 2022, affecting Microsoft Windows systems. This critical vulnerability exists in the Windows Remote Procedure Call Runtime library and impacts all supported Windows products. The vulnerability received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical) (Microsoft MSRC, NVD).

The vulnerability resides in Microsoft's Remote Procedure Call (RPC) technology, which is used for creating distributed client/server programs. The flaw specifically involves an integer overflow that leads to a buffer overflow on the heap, triggered after 1048576 packets are sent, as each packet is 4096 bytes, causing an overflow of a 32-bit integer. The vulnerability received the highest CVSS score of 9.8, indicating critical severity with low attack complexity and requiring no privileges or user interaction (Security Online).

The vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain remote code execution on the server-side. With over 2 million Microsoft machines potentially exposed according to Shodan.io data, the impact is significant. The vulnerability's characteristics - low attack complexity, no required privileges, and no user interaction - make it potentially wormable (Security Online).

Microsoft released patches for this vulnerability in April 2022 Patch Tuesday. The recommended mitigations include applying the April 2022 security updates, blocking ports 139 and 445 at the perimeter firewall, and following Microsoft guidelines to secure SMB traffic. However, Microsoft notes that blocking these ports alone may not protect against all potential attack scenarios (Security Online).