Security feature bypass via unchecked privileged COM call
Published Jan 16, 2026 · Updated Jan 16, 2026
Improper privilege management in Microsoft Edge before 144.0.3719.82 allows local users to disable Windows VBS through a privileged COM call. The Edge Elevation Service's IElevatorEdge.LaunchUpdateCmdElevatedAndWait method executes registered update commands as LocalSystem without checking whether the caller is an administrator. Standard-user access is sufficient to alter protected DeviceGuard registry state, weakening Credential Guard, HVCI, and Secure Kernel protections.
Summary
What happened
Improper privilege management in Microsoft Edge before 144.0.3719.82 allows local users to disable Windows VBS through a privileged COM call. The Edge Elevation Service's IElevatorEdge.LaunchUpdateCmdElevatedAndWait method executes registered update commands as LocalSystem without checking whether the caller is an administrator. Standard-user access is sufficient to alter protected DeviceGuard registry state, weakening Credential Guard, HVCI, and Secure Kernel protections.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-21223
- Published
- Jan 16, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 16, 2026
- Vendor
- Microsoft
- Product
- Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based)
- Classifications
- CWE-269, T1562.001
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 16, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 16, 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=1.0.0.0 <144.0.3719.82
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.
Public exploit references
- Edge VBS bypass proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
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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