CVE-2026-24289
Published: 10 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-24289 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 21H2. 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 10.4th 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).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Timely remediation of identified flaws, including applying Microsoft patches, directly eliminates the use-after-free vulnerability in the Windows Kernel.
Deploys memory protection mechanisms like randomization and guards that prevent or block exploitation of use-after-free errors in kernel code.
Enforces secure baseline configuration settings for the Windows Kernel to enable exploit mitigations that hinder local privilege escalation via use-after-free.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Use-after-free in Windows Kernel directly enables local privilege escalation from low-privileged context (T1068).
NVD Description
Use after free in Windows Kernel allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-24289 is a use-after-free vulnerability (CWE-416) in the Windows Kernel. Published on 2026-03-10T18:18:19.110, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and enables an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
The vulnerability can be exploited by a local attacker who already possesses low privileges (PR:L). Exploitation requires local access (AV:L) and low attack complexity (AC:L) with no user interaction (UI:N). Successful exploitation allows the attacker to achieve high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), typically resulting in full privilege escalation on the affected system.
Mitigation details are available in the Microsoft Security Response Center update guide at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-24289.
Details
- CWE(s)