CVE-2026-26160
Published: 14 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-26160 is a high-severity Missing Authentication for Critical Function (CWE-306) 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 16.7th 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 AC-14 (Permitted Actions Without Identification or Authentication) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-26160 is a vulnerability involving missing authentication for a critical function in the Windows Remote Desktop Licensing Service. Published on 2026-04-14T18:16:48.463, 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 maps to CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function.
The vulnerability enables a local attacker with low privileges to exploit the unauthenticated critical function in the Windows Remote Desktop Licensing Service. Exploitation requires low attack complexity, no user interaction, and occurs entirely locally, allowing the attacker to elevate privileges with high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Mitigation details are available in the Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-26160.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-22385
Vulnerability details
Missing authentication for critical function in Windows Remote Desktop Licensing Service allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Missing authentication in a critical local service function directly enables local privilege escalation via software vulnerability exploitation.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mitigates missing authentication for critical functions by requiring identification, authorization, and documentation of permitted actions without identification or authentication.
Enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, preventing privilege escalation through unauthenticated critical functions in the Remote Desktop Licensing Service.
Applies least privilege to limit the scope of privileges that can be elevated by exploiting the unauthenticated service function.