CVE-2026-20867: Windows Management Services Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Overview

Severity
High (CVSS 7.8)
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Category
Elevation of Privilege
Exploit Status
Not Exploited
Exploitation Likelihood
Unlikely
Patch Tuesday
2026-Jan
Released
2026-01-13
EPSS Score
0.03% (percentile: 6.8%)

Description

Concurrent execution using shared resource with improper synchronization ('race condition') in Windows Management Services allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, successful exploitation could lead to a scope change (S:C). What does this mean for this vulnerability? In this case, a successful attack could be performed from a low privilege AppContainer. The attacker could elevate their privileges and execute code or access resources at a higher integrity level than that of the AppContainer execution environment. According to the CVSS metric, the attack complexity is high (AC:H). What does that mean for this vulnerability? Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to win a race condition. What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability? An attacker could use this vulnerability to elevate privileges from a Low Integrity Level in a contained ("sandboxed") execution environment to a Medium Integrity Level. Please refer to AppContainer isolation and Mandatory Integrity Control for more information.

Affected Products (21)

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

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 (7)

Acknowledgments

Anonymous

Revision History

  • 2026-01-13: Information published.