CVE-2026-20823: Windows File Explorer Information Disclosure Vulnerability

Overview

Severity

Medium (CVSS 5.5)

CVSS Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Category

Information Disclosure

Exploit Status

Not Exploited

Exploitation Likelihood

Unlikely

Patch Tuesday

2026-Jan

Released

2026-01-13

EPSS Score

0.04% (percentile: 12.7%)

Description

Exposure of sensitive information to an unauthorized actor in Windows File Explorer allows an authorized attacker to disclose information locally.

FAQ

According to the CVSS metrics, successful exploitation of this vulnerability could lead to some loss of confidentiality (C:L),but lead to no loss of availability (A:N) and integrity (I:N)? What does that mean for this vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could view some sensitive information (Confidentiality) but not all resources within the impacted component may be divulged to the attacker. The attacker cannot make changes to disclosed information (Integrity) or limit access to the resource (Availability). What type of information could be disclosed by this vulnerability? The type of information that could be disclosed if an attacker successfully exploited this vulnerability is an address from an object operating at a High Integrity Level in a contained ("sandboxed") execution environment. Please refer to AppContainer isolation and Mandatory Integrity Control for more information.

Affected Products (25)

Windows

• Windows 10 Version 1809 for 32-bit Systems
• Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2022 (Server Core installation)
• Windows 10 Version 21H2 for 32-bit Systems
• Windows 10 Version 21H2 for ARM64-based Systems
• Windows 10 Version 21H2 for x64-based Systems
• Windows Server 2025 (Server Core installation)
• Windows 11 Version 25H2 for ARM64-based Systems
• Windows 11 Version 25H2 for x64-based Systems
• Windows 11 Version 23H2 for ARM64-based Systems
• Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems
• Windows Server 2022, 23H2 Edition (Server Core installation)
• Windows 11 Version 24H2 for ARM64-based Systems
• Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows 10 Version 1607 for 32-bit Systems
• Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)

ESU

• Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems
• Windows 10 Version 22H2 for ARM64-based Systems
• Windows 10 Version 22H2 for 32-bit Systems

Security Updates (8)

• 5073723
• 5073457
• 5073724
• 5073379
• 5074109
• 5073455
• 5073450
• 5073722

Acknowledgments

Anonymous

Revision History

• 2026-01-13: Information published.