CVE-2026-20924
Published: 13 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-20924 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 3.3th 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-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-20924 is a use-after-free vulnerability in Windows Management Services, associated with CWE-416 (use after free) and CWE-362 (concurrent execution, sharing resources). Published on 2026-01-13, it carries 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), indicating high severity due to its potential for significant impact despite requiring local access and high attack complexity.
The vulnerability can be exploited by an authorized local attacker possessing low privileges. Exploitation requires high attack complexity and no user interaction, but successful attacks change scope and grant high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts, enabling local privilege escalation.
The Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20924 provides guidance on mitigations and available patches.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-2127
Vulnerability details
Use after free in Windows Management Services allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Use-after-free in Windows Management Services directly enables local privilege escalation via memory corruption exploitation (T1068).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-2 requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of flaws like this use-after-free vulnerability via patching, directly eliminating the CVE.
SI-16 implements memory protection safeguards such as ASLR and DEP that directly mitigate exploitation of use-after-free vulnerabilities.
AC-6 enforces least privilege, limiting the impact of local privilege escalation by restricting unnecessary access in Windows Management Services.