Local privilege escalation via use-after-free race
Published Jan 13, 2026 · Updated Jan 13, 2026
Use-after-free in Microsoft Windows Management Services allows local authenticated users to elevate privileges on affected Windows releases. Concurrent access to a shared resource can race with object lifetime management, leaving the service to use memory after the object is freed. Low-privilege local access is required, and Microsoft has not disclosed the affected function or the privileges obtained beyond elevation.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Microsoft Windows Management Services allows local authenticated users to elevate privileges on affected Windows releases. Concurrent access to a shared resource can race with object lifetime management, leaving the service to use memory after the object is freed. Low-privilege local access is required, and Microsoft has not disclosed the affected function or the privileges obtained beyond elevation.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-20924
- Published
- Jan 13, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 13, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Windows Server 2019
- Classifications
- CWE-362, CWE-416, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 13, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 13, 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 <10.0.17763.8276
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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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