CVE-2026-32160
Published: 14 April 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-32160 is a high-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) 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 12.4th 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 SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly prevents unauthorized and unintended information transfer via shared system resources, addressing the core race condition vulnerability in Windows Push Notifications.
Requires timely identification, patching, and verification of software flaws like this race condition to eliminate the privilege escalation vector.
Enforces least privilege to restrict the scope and impact of local privilege escalation attempts exploiting the race condition.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Local race condition vulnerability enabling privilege escalation on Windows (CWE-362, AV:L/PR:L).
NVD Description
Concurrent execution using shared resource with improper synchronization ('race condition') in Windows Push Notifications allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-32160 is a race condition vulnerability (CWE-362) stemming from concurrent execution using a shared resource with improper synchronization in the Windows Push Notifications component. Published on 2026-04-14T18:17:17.953, it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and affects Windows systems.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability due to its local attack vector (AV:L) and low privilege requirement (PR:L). Exploitation demands high complexity (AC:H) but requires no user interaction (UI:N). Successful attacks enable local privilege escalation, resulting in high impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H) with a changed scope (S:C).
Microsoft's Security Update Guide provides details on mitigation and patches for CVE-2026-32160 at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-32160.
Details
- CWE(s)