CVE-2026-20918
Published: 13 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-20918 is a high-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 1809. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 7.1th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Requires timely identification, reporting, and patching of the specific race condition flaw in Windows Management Services to prevent local privilege escalation.
Prevents unauthorized and unintended information transfer via shared system resources, directly addressing the improper synchronization in concurrent execution exploited by this CVE.
Enforces least privilege for processes, limiting the potential impact and success of privilege escalation resulting from the race condition vulnerability.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Race condition in Windows Management Services directly enables local privilege escalation via exploitation of the vulnerability.
NVD Description
Concurrent execution using shared resource with improper synchronization ('race condition') in Windows Management Services allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-20918 is a race condition vulnerability stemming from concurrent execution using a shared resource with improper synchronization in Windows Management Services. Published on 2026-01-13, it has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and is associated with CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')) and CWE-416.
The vulnerability can be exploited by an authorized local attacker with low privileges who has physical or logical access to the target system. Exploitation requires high attack complexity but no user interaction, allowing the attacker to change scope and achieve high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, ultimately enabling local privilege escalation.
Microsoft's advisory provides details and mitigation guidance in the update guide at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20918.
Details
- CWE(s)