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 20.8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Likely Mitigating ControlsAI
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.
The access control policy and procedures directly mandate and enforce proper access control mechanisms across the organization.
Device lock enforces restricted access until re-authentication, directly reducing unauthorized use of active sessions.
Supervision and review of access control activities directly detects and remediates improper access configurations or usages.
Explicitly identifying and documenting actions permitted without identification or authentication enforces proper access control boundaries by defining justified exceptions.
By automatically labeling outputs with security attributes, the control supports attribute-based enforcement and reduces exploitability of improper access control weaknesses.
Associating and retaining security attributes with data directly supports enforcement of access control decisions across storage, processing, and transmission.
Requiring prior authorization for each remote access type prevents improper access control over remote connections.
Requiring authorization of wireless access before allowing connections enforces proper access control for this access method.
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.
NVD Description
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).
Deeper analysisAI
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.
Details
- CWE(s)