CVSS 8.5 HIGH Bulletin: MS10-042 Published: 2010-06-15

CVE-2010-1885: Microsoft Windows Help and Support Center HCP Protocol Handler RCE

Technical intelligence and weaponization dossier for CVE-2010-1885. Documented exploitation across 2 active malware families totaling 239 analyzed telemetry samples.

Attributed Families
2
Sample Volume
239
CVSS Vector
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Official NIST NVD
View NVD Record →

Vulnerability Specifications & Root Cause

Vulnerability ID CVE-2010-1885
Common Name / Bulletin Microsoft Windows Help and Support Center HCP Protocol Handler RCE (MS10-042)
CWE Classification CWE-94: Code Injection via URI Scheme
Affected Software & Versions Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003
Technical Root Cause Vulnerability in Help and Support Center when interpreting hcp:// protocol URIs containing malicious escape characters, allowing script injection into the trusted local zone.
Associated ATT&CK Techniques
  • T1189 — Associated ATT&CK Technique
  • T1059 — Associated ATT&CK Technique

Malware Families Weaponizing CVE-2010-1885

Empirical catalog telemetry verifies that the following 2 malware families weaponize this vulnerability for initial access, privilege escalation, or lateral movement:

2 families
Malware Family Category Catalog Samples Operational Profile
spyeyeBanking Trojan192SpyEye (cataloged across security vendors as Trojan:Win32/SpyEye, Win32/SpyEye, and TSPY_SPYEYE) is one of the most notorious and commercially successful bankin...
kelihosSpam Bot47Worm:Win32/Kelihos (also known as Hlux) was a massive, highly resilient peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet that operated from 2010 until its final federal dismantling in...

Attributed Threat Actors & Syndicates

Threat intelligence confirms the following adversaries weaponize CVE-2010-1885 in enterprise intrusions and campaign toolkits:

SOC Detection & Threat Hunting Guidance

Threat hunting leads and behavioral telemetry patterns to identify weaponized exploitation of CVE-2010-1885 in enterprise networks:

Process execution of helpctr.exe with parameters containing url=hcp:// or escaped script strings; browser redirection to hcp:// schemes.

Remediation & Defensive Hardening

SOC containment checklist and attack surface reduction measures to neutralize exploitation:

Actionable Guidance: Unregister the HCP protocol handler via regsvr32 /u /s %windir%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\msinfo.dll; apply MS10-042.

For end-to-end incident response procedures, consult our dedicated playbook: Active Incident Response Playbook →

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