What is CVE-2010-3973?

CVE-2010-3973 is a vulnerability in Microsoft Wmi Administrative Tools, classified under Code Injection. Published 2010-12-23.

Is CVE-2010-3973 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

RCE in Microsoft Wmi Administrative Tools

CVE-2010-3973

The WMITools ActiveX control in WBEMSingleView.ocx 1.50.1131.0 in Microsoft WMI Administrative Tools 1.1 and earlier in Microsoft Windows XP SP2 and SP3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted argument to the AddContextRef method, possibly an untrusted pointer dereference, aka "Microsoft WMITools ActiveX Control Vulnerability."

Vulnerability class: RCE (Remote Code Execution)

Published 2010-12-23 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 9.3 (High). Vector: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.717 (99.4th percentile), scored 2026-10-18.

High probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — patch promptly. 99th percentile — 99.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.717 · newest: 0.717 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Microsoft Wmi Administrative Tools

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-94 — Code Injection

Public proof-of-concept exploits

rapid7/metasploit-framework

References

blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2011/01/07/assessing-the-risk-of-public-issues-…
www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2010/3301 (vdb-entry, Vendor Advisory)
oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval:org.mitre.oval:def:12475 (signature, vdb-entry)
www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/725596 (US Government Resource, third-party-advisory)
www.wooyun.org/bug.php (Exploit)
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2011/ms11-027 (vendor-advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/45546 (Exploit, vdb-entry)
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/64250 (vdb-entry)
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15809 (Exploit, exploit)
secunia.com/advisories/42693 (Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2010-3973?: CVE-2010-3973 is a vulnerability in Microsoft Wmi Administrative Tools, classified under Code Injection. Published 2010-12-23.
Is CVE-2010-3973 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.