CVE-2026-26162
Published: 14 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-26162 is a high-severity Type Confusion (CWE-843) 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 34.1th 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-6 (Least Privilege) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-26162 is a type confusion vulnerability, classified as an access of resource using incompatible type (CWE-843), affecting the Windows OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) component. Published on 2026-04-14T18:16:49.133, 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), indicating high severity due to its potential for significant impact.
A local attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability with low attack complexity and no user interaction required. Successful exploitation enables privilege escalation, granting high-level impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially allowing the attacker to gain elevated control over the affected system.
The Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-26162 details mitigation strategies and available patches for addressing this vulnerability.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-22388
Vulnerability details
Access of resource using incompatible type ('type confusion') in Windows OLE allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Local type confusion in Windows OLE directly enables T1068 (Exploitation for Privilege Escalation) for local attacker to gain SYSTEM-level access.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly addresses the type confusion vulnerability by requiring identification, reporting, prioritization, and timely patching as detailed in the MSRC advisory.
Enforces least privilege for local users and processes, limiting the starting privileges and potential impact of privilege escalation via OLE exploitation.
Implements memory protections like ASLR and DEP that hinder exploitation of type confusion flaws leading to memory corruption and code execution.