ZDI-26-446: Microsoft Windows WMI Providers Incorrect Authorization Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Admiralty grading (A–F · 1–6)
Source reliability
- A Completely reliable
- B Usually reliable
- C Fairly reliable
- D Not usually reliable
- E Unreliable
- F Cannot be judged
Information credibility
- 1 Confirmed
- 2 Probably true
- 3 Possibly true
- 4 Doubtful
- 5 Improbable
- 6 Cannot be judged
NATO Admiralty (AJP-2.1) grades confidence, independent of the risk score. Cross-source corroboration isn't tracked for non-CVE news, so single-source items are capped at a lower credibility number; a low number does not imply low quality.
Key metrics
- CVSS
- 7.0
- EPSS
- 0%
Affected versions
Key insight
A local privilege escalation flaw in Windows WMI Providers requires prior code execution access and threatens environments with locally accessible systems.
Description
CVE-2026-50297 is a security flaw in Microsoft Windows WMI Providers that results in local privilege escalation due to improper authorization checks. An attacker with the ability to execute low-privileged code can exploit this vulnerability to obtain higher system privileges. The flaw has been rated CVSS 7.0 and is currently subject to a ZDI advisory. Proof-of-concept or active exploitation is not publicly known at this time.
Risk score
- cvss base
- 70.00
- kev bonus
- 0.00
- epss bonus
- 0.00
- poc bonus
- 15.00
- raw before weight
- 85.00
- industry weight
- 1.21
- freshness factor
- 0.50
- exploitability factor
- 1.00
- days old
- 49.00
- vendor mismatch penalty
- 0.00
Path: operational
MITRE ATT&CK mapping
2 TTPsProcedure details
| Technique | Tactic | Procedure | Conf. | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation | Privilege Escalation | Local attackers exploit an incorrect authorization vulnerability in Microsoft Windows WMI Providers (CVE-2026-50297) to escalate privileges from low-privileged code execution to higher privilege levels on the target system. | high | llm |
| T1047 Windows Management Instrumentation | Execution | The vulnerability exists specifically within Microsoft Windows WMI Providers, which are abused due to incorrect authorization checks to achieve privilege escalation on affected Windows installations. | high | llm |