Security Resilience

CVE-2026-85850

Published
13 October 2026
Modified
13 October 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0034 26th percentile
Risk Priority 56 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-85850 is a high-severity Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference (CWE-763) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 26th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Release of invalid pointer or reference in Windows Kernel allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

CWE(s)
CWE-763

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003 OS Credential Dumping Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login and credential material, normally in the form of a hash or a clear text password.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
attack.mitre.org →
T1011.001 Exfiltration Over Bluetooth Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over Bluetooth rather than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
T1016.002 Wi-Fi Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may search for information about Wi-Fi networks, such as network names and passwords, on compromised systems.
attack.mitre.org →
T1021.003 Distributed Component Object Model Lateral Movement
Adversaries may use [Valid Accounts](https://attack.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-50057Shared CWE-763
CVE-2026-74947Shared CWE-763
CVE-2026-15718Shared CWE-763
CVE-2026-47312Shared CWE-763
CVE-2024-35832Shared CWE-763
CVE-2024-44852Shared CWE-763
CVE-2026-108133Shared CWE-763
CVE-2025-65116Shared CWE-763
CVE-2025-30379Shared CWE-763
CVE-2023-4883Shared CWE-763

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation partial match

Developer testing and evaluation directly exercises deallocation paths and can find incorrect release calls or mismatched alloc/free pairs.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Documented development standards and tools can mandate safe memory-management idioms and static checks that avoid invalid releases.

SA-3 System Development Life Cycle partial match

An SDLC that incorporates security can embed memory-safety requirements, reducing the chance such coding errors are introduced.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Engineering principles require correct resource management and memory-release patterns that stop invalid pointer releases from being coded.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent invalid pointer release errors during development.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
blocks

A.8.25 mandates a secure-SDLC process (requirements, checkpoints, secure coding guidelines, testing, training) but does not itself stop an invalid pointer/reference from being released; the coding defect can still be written, reach production, and be exploitable.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
blocks

A.8.26 only requires that security requirements (including resilience against attacks such as buffer overflows) be identified and specified during development; it does not itself enforce, implement or assure those requirements, so the invalid-pointer weakness can still arise and be exploited.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
blocks

A.8.27 mandates establishing and applying secure engineering principles (e.g. least privilege, security by design, hardening) during architecture and development; it does not stop an invalid pointer release from being exploitable once the coding error exists in the product.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly prohibit mismatched or incorrect pointer-release calls.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance partial match
finds

Security testing can detect invalid pointer releases before release.

A.8.8 Management of technical vulnerabilities partial match
removes

References