CVE-2026-35436: Microsoft Office Click-To-Run Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Overview

Severity

High (CVSS 8.8)

CVSS Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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

Less Likely

Patch Tuesday

2026-May

Released

2026-05-12

Description

Insufficient granularity of access control in Microsoft Office Click-To-Run allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

FAQ

According to the CVSS metric, a successful exploitation could lead to a scope change (S:C). What does this mean for this vulnerability? This vulnerability could lead to a contained execution environment escape. Please refer to AppContainer Isolation for more information. What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability? An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain SYSTEM privileges. Is the Preview Pane an attack vector for this vulnerability? No, the Preview Pane is not an attack vector.

Affected Products (8)

Microsoft Office

• Microsoft Office 2019 for 32-bit editions
• Microsoft Office 2019 for 64-bit editions
• Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise for 32-bit Systems
• Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise for 64-bit Systems
• Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 64-bit editions
• Microsoft Office LTSC 2021 for 32-bit editions
• Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 for 32-bit editions
• Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 for 64-bit editions

Acknowledgments

Ben Lichtman with Microsoft

Revision History

• 2026-05-12: Information published.