Local privilege escalation
Published Mar 11, 2021 · Updated Aug 19, 2026
Elevation of privilege in affected Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Server releases allows local users to gain elevated privileges. Microsoft identifies the Windows Overlay Filter as the affected component but has not published the faulty operation or attacker-controlled input. Exploitation requires prior low-privilege local access and no user interaction, after which the attacker can act with higher privileges and affect system data or availability.
Summary
What happened
Elevation of privilege in affected Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Server releases allows local users to gain elevated privileges. Microsoft identifies the Windows Overlay Filter as the affected component but has not published the faulty operation or attacker-controlled input. Exploitation requires prior low-privilege local access and no user interaction, after which the attacker can act with higher privileges and affect system data or availability.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-26874
- Published
- Mar 11, 2021
- Updated
- Aug 19, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2019
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Mar 11, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 19, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0.17763.0 <10.0.17763.1817
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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