CVE-2026-21984
Published: 20 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-21984 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 Hypervisor (T1062); ranked at the 8.3th 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?
Improper access control in VirtualBox core directly enables hypervisor compromise/takeover from a privileged host context, mapping to T1062.
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 high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to…
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compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. While the vulnerability is in Oracle VM VirtualBox, attacks may significantly impact additional products (scope change). 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:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-21984 is a vulnerability in the Core component of Oracle VM VirtualBox, a product within Oracle Virtualization. The supported versions affected are 7.1.14 and 7.2.4. Classified under CWE-284 (Improper Access Control), it carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.5 with the vector AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
The vulnerability is difficult to exploit and requires a high-privileged attacker with logon access to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox, resulting in a full takeover of the product. Although the flaw resides in VirtualBox, exploitation enables a scope change that may significantly impact additional products.
Oracle's Critical Patch Update advisory provides details on mitigation, available at https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2026.html. Security practitioners should consult this reference for patches and recommended actions applicable to the affected versions.
Details
- CWE(s)