Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2022-26904 is a high-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 2008. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 3% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2022-26904 is an elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in the Windows User Profile Service stemming from a race condition (CWE-362). The flaw affects multiple versions of Windows and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.0, reflecting local attack vector, high attack complexity, low privileges required, and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
A local attacker with a low-privileged account can exploit the race condition to obtain SYSTEM-level privileges on an affected system. Successful exploitation grants the attacker full control over the target machine, enabling arbitrary code execution, credential theft, and persistence.
Microsoft’s security update guide recommends installing the patches released on April 12, 2022, which address the underlying race condition in the User Profile Service. The vulnerability is also listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming that federal agencies must apply mitigations according to the published timelines.
EPSS scores for the CVE rose from low values after disclosure to a peak of 0.2831 in December 2025 before receding to the current 0.2300, indicating renewed exploitation interest well after the initial release.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2022-31451
Vulnerability Data
Windows User Profile Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 25 April 2022
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Accurate timestamps from internal clocks enable detection of race conditions by providing reliable event ordering in audit logs.
Coordination of concurrent security activities reduces the probability that shared resources will be accessed simultaneously without proper synchronization.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
A.8.25 mandates secure SDLC practices (secure coding guidelines, security requirements, checkpoints, testing including code scans/penetration tests, developer training) that reach race conditions in concurrent code, but only as one slice of a broad requirement whose implementation scope and rigour are left to the organisation.
A.8.26 explicitly lists resilience against malicious attacks including SQL injections and input validation as application security requirements to identify/address; race conditions are a similar class of timing-based concurrency flaw that can be mitigated by requirements for proper synchronization/locking, but this is only one slice of the broad CWE-362 class (most instances arise in low-level shared-memory or TOCTOU scenarios not named here).
Secure architecture principles require proper synchronization and resource isolation, addressing the root cause of CWE-362.
Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe concurrent access patterns and mandate atomic operations or locks.
Security testing can detect race conditions, but does not prevent them at design or coding time.
Hardening callouts derived
DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.
- No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-362, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.