Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A user who already has limited, authorized access to an affected Windows system may exploit a timing flaw in Windows Secure Channel to gain higher privileges. Successful exploitation could compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The flaw requires local access and a difficult race condition, reducing—but not eliminating—practical risk.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority patching issue, especially on multi-user servers, administrative workstations, and endpoints vulnerable to initial account compromise. It is not described as remotely exploitable, but it could help an intruder convert limited access into broader system control. Track remediation through verified installation rather than deployment status alone.
Technical view
CVE-2025-26649 is a local elevation-of-privilege vulnerability caused by improper synchronization of a shared Secure Channel resource. It is classified under CWE-362 and CWE-416. CVSS 3.1 is 7.0: low privileges and no user interaction are required, but attack complexity is high. The resulting privilege level is not specified in the supplied evidence.
Likely exposure
Exposure applies to the listed Windows 11 22H2, 23H2, and 24H2 systems, plus Windows Server 2022, Server 2022 23H2 Core, and Server 2025 variants. Risk is greatest where untrusted or compromised low-privilege accounts can execute locally. Confirm exact applicability against Microsoft's advisory because the supplied version labels contain overlap.
Exploitation context
The attacker must already be authorized, hold low privileges, and execute locally. Exploitation requires winning a high-complexity race condition without user interaction. The supplied sources do not establish public exploit availability or active exploitation, and the CVE is not identified as being in CISA's KEV catalog.
Researcher notes
The record identifies concurrent shared-resource execution with improper synchronization and maps the issue to race-condition and use-after-free weakness classes. Important implementation details—including the vulnerable Secure Channel operation, timing trigger, attained privilege context, and applicable update identifiers—are absent from the bundle. Avoid assuming exploitability beyond the stated local, authorized, high-complexity conditions.
Mitigation direction
- Review Microsoft's CVE advisory and deploy the applicable official security update.
- Prioritize shared servers and endpoints allowing local access by less-trusted users.
- Restrict unnecessary interactive and programmatic local access until updates are verified.
- Follow Microsoft guidance if an affected system cannot be updated promptly.
Validation and detection
- Inventory affected Windows editions, versions, and build levels across endpoints and servers.
- Map each detected system to the applicable update in Microsoft's advisory.
- Verify the required security update is installed and deployment completed successfully.
- Re-scan updated assets and investigate systems that remain vulnerable or unreported.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-362: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCWE-416: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupPrivilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2025-26649 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C15.9microsoftVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- Windows Secure Channel Elevation of Privilege VulnerabilityCVE reference, microsoft · vendor-advisory, patch
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition')
Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition') represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Use After Free
Use After Free represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.