CVE-2026-21989
Published: 20 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-21989 is a high-severity an unspecified weakness vulnerability in Oracle Vm Virtualbox. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 3.2th 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 SI-2 (Flaw Remediation) and AC-6 (Least Privilege).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Timely flaw remediation directly prevents exploitation of the specific vulnerability in Oracle VM VirtualBox core component versions 7.1.14 and 7.2.4.
Least privilege limits the availability of high-privileged (PR:H) accounts needed by local attackers to logon and exploit the vulnerability on the host infrastructure.
System monitoring detects anomalous high-privileged local activity, unauthorized data access/modification, or partial DoS indicative of VirtualBox compromise and scope change impacts.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Local high-privileged exploit in VirtualBox hypervisor core with scope change directly enables host privilege escalation (T1068) and VM escape to underlying host (T1611).
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. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise…
more
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 unauthorized creation, deletion or modification access to critical data or all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data as well as unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data and unauthorized ability to cause a partial denial of service (partial DOS) of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 8.1 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L).
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-21989 is a vulnerability in the Core component of the Oracle VM VirtualBox product within Oracle Virtualization. The supported versions affected are 7.1.14 and 7.2.4. Published on 2026-01-20, it carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.1 with impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability, as detailed in the vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L.
The vulnerability is easily exploitable by a high-privileged attacker with logon access to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes. Exploitation compromises Oracle VM VirtualBox and, due to a scope change, may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks enable unauthorized creation, deletion, or modification of critical data or all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data, unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all such data, and a partial denial of service against Oracle VM VirtualBox.
Mitigation details are provided in the Oracle security alert at https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2026.html.
Details
- CWE(s)