CVE-2026-21982
Published: 20 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-21982 is a high-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Oracle Vm Virtualbox. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation of Remote Services (T1210); ranked at the 22.2th 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 PE-4 (Access Control for Transmission) and SC-7 (Boundary Protection).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-21982 is a vulnerability in the Core component of Oracle VM VirtualBox, which is part of Oracle Virtualization. The supported versions affected by this issue are 7.1.14 and 7.2.4. It is classified under CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5, reflecting high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
The vulnerability is difficult to exploit and enables an unauthenticated attacker with access to the physical communication segment attached to the hardware where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise the product. Successful attacks can result in a full takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. The CVSS vector is (CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating adjacent network access, high attack complexity, no privileges or user interaction required, and unchanged scope.
Mitigation details are provided in the Oracle security advisory at https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2026.html.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-3530
Vulnerability details
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are 7.1.14 and 7.2.4. Difficult to exploit vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with access to the physical communication segment attached to the hardware where…
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the Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 7.5 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE enables adjacent-network exploitation of VirtualBox for full host/process takeover via improper access control, directly mapping to remote service exploitation and privilege escalation.
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly remediates the specific flaw in Oracle VM VirtualBox Core (CVE-2026-21982) through timely identification, reporting, and correction of vulnerabilities.
Prevents unauthenticated attackers from accessing the physical communication segment attached to the VirtualBox host hardware, which is required for exploitation (AV:A).
Monitors and controls communications at system boundaries to block unauthorized adjacent network traffic that could exploit the VirtualBox Core vulnerability.