Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain low-privileged local session
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DeliveryLaunch crafted program targeting Windows Storage
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ExploitRace timing window to trigger use-after-free
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ExecutionReuse freed object with controlled data
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ImpactElevate privileges to SYSTEM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Concurrency control, locking
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires the attacker to already have an authenticated, low-privileged local session on the Windows host (PR:L, AV:L) - this is not remotely reachable and not exploitable by anonymous users. No user interaction is needed (UI:N). The principal limiting factor is high attack complexity (AC:H): because the flaw is a use-after-free rooted in a race condition (CWE-362), the attacker must reliably win a narrow timing window and groom memory so the freed object is reused with controlled data, which CISA SSVC confirms is not automatable (no reliable mass exploitation). Affects default installations of all currently supported Windows client and server builds below the patched versions listed in EUVD (e.g. Windows 11 24H2 below 10.0.26100.9711, Windows Server 2025 below 10.0.26100.33650, Server Core installations included), so no special non-default configuration is required beyond running an unpatched build. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-priority, not a drop-everything, issue. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.0 (High) is driven entirely by total impact (C:H/I:H/A:H) rather than by ease of attack: the vector is local (AV:L), requires low privileges (PR:L - i.e. an already-authenticated/authorized user on the host), and critically carries high attack complexity (AC:H), which is consistent with CWE-362 (Race Condition) and the use-after-free bug class - the attacker must reliably win a timing window to trigger the freed-object reuse. Every exploitation signal points to low real-world urgency: CISA's SSVC decision framework records Exploitation as 'none', Automatable as 'no' (reinforcing that the race condition cannot be sprayed reliably at scale), with only Technical Impact rated 'total'. There is no CISA KEV listing and no public exploit identified, so there is currently no public-exploit or active-exploitation signal to contradict the low-automatability assessment. The signals are therefore internally consistent - high impact but hard, local, privileged, non-automatable exploitation - making this a solid patch-in-normal-cycle candidate rather than an emergency. One data caveat: the input Tags include 'Denial Of Service' alongside 'Race Condition', but the description and CVSS describe a privilege-escalation use-after-free with full C/I/A impact, so DoS is at most a secondary outcome of the availability impact, not the primary risk. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A local attacker who already has a low-privileged authenticated session on a Windows host runs a crafted program that repeatedly races operations against the Windows Storage component to hit a narrow timing window, triggering a use-after-free on a freed object. By grooming the heap so the freed allocation is replaced with attacker-controlled data, they reuse the dangling reference to corrupt kernel state and elevate to SYSTEM. No public exploit code has been identified, and the high attack complexity (race condition) means exploitation is unreliable and not automatable. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 14, 2026
Use-after-free in the Windows Storage component allows an authenticated low-privileged local user to elevate privileges to full system integrity on affected Windows hosts. Exploitation requires winning a narrow race-condition timing window (CWE-362) and grooming freed memory for reuse, which is why attack complexity is rated high and CISA's SSVC assessment marks the flaw non-automatable, keeping this a moderate-priority rather than drop-everything issue. All currently supported Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server builds below the vendor-fixed versions are affected, including Server Core installations, but Microsoft has released patches; no public exploit code has been identified and no exploitation activity is recorded (CISA SSVC exploitation: none).
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: Microsoft has published fixes for this issue and administrators should apply the current cumulative updates so that each build reaches or exceeds the patched versions listed above, namely 10.0.22631.7652 (Windows 11 23H2), 10.0.26100.9711 (Windows 11 24H2 / Windows Server 2025 client build line), 10.0.26200.9711 (Windows 11 25H2), 10.0.28000.3231 (Windows 11 26H1), 10.0.26300.9711 (Windows 11 26H2), 10.0.17763.9376 (Windows 10 1809 / Windows Server 2019), 10.0.19044.7807 (Windows 10 21H2 and 22H2), 10.0.20348.5761 (Windows Server 2022) and 10.0.26100.33650 (Windows Server 2025 and Server Core); the package details are available at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-69763. Because the flaw is only reachable by an already-authenticated local user, the most effective compensating control while patching is to reduce local logon surface: restrict interactive and RDP logon rights (via Local Security Policy or Group Policy) to only personnel who need them, remove or disable unnecessary local and shared-credential accounts, and avoid running untrusted code or third-party utilities under accounts with local logon rights - the trade-off is administrative overhead and potential loss of legitimate multi-user or shared-workstation access. Additional hardening includes enabling Credential Guard and enforcing least privilege so that compromise of one local account does not immediately yield an administrative session, though note this does not remove the underlying race window and is only a risk reduction, not a fix; disabling or removing the storage component is not a workable mitigation since it is core to disk and volume operations. Given that no public exploit code or active exploitation has been observed, remediation can be scheduled with normal patch-cycle urgency rather than emergency out-of-band deployment.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 13 packages in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The flaw is a use-after-free whose root cause the vendor classifies as CWE-362, improper synchronization on a shared resource accessed concurrently, i.e. a race condition. Within the Windows Storage stack, a low-privileged process can race a memory object's lifetime against a concurrent operation so that the object is freed and then reused with attacker-influenced data, yielding memory corruption that pivots into kernel-level code execution and privilege elevation. The assessed vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H confirms the requirements precisely: local access only (AV:L, not remotely reachable), an existing authenticated low-privileged session (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), and high attack complexity (AC:H) reflecting the timing precision needed; the scope is unchanged (S:U) while confidentiality, integrity and availability impacts are all high (C:H/I:H/A:H), meaning a successful attacker effectively gains full control of the host. Because the issue lives in the default storage subsystem, no unusual non-default configuration is needed to be exposed, only an unpatched build; conversely, the race condition and non-automatable SSVC rating mean reliable, mass-scale exploitation is not expected.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Local privilege escalation requiring an authenticated session (AV:L, PR:L); race-condition use-after-free makes reliable triggering hard (AC:H); successful exploit yields SYSTEM, so full C/I/A.
Primary rating from Vendor (microsoft).
CVSS VectorVendor: microsoft
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Use after free in Windows Storage allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Executive ViewAI
A privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows Storage component affects all supported versions of Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server, allowing a local attacker to obtain system-level privileges. Although exploitation requires complex timing, no public exploit identified at time of analysis, and no exploitation activity is recorded, a successful attack could result in full system compromise and data exposure. With patches now available from Microsoft, immediate remediation is recommended to reduce organizational risk.
Apply vendor patch.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Race conditions occur when multiple concurrent requests exploit the brief time gap between checking a condition and acting upon it (TOCTOU - Time of Check, Time of Use).
Denial of Service attacks render applications or systems unavailable by overwhelming resources or triggering failure conditions.
EUVD-2026-99095
GHSA-v3wg-fp7p-42jg
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB