CVE-2026-41091
Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
Microsoft Defender Link Following Vulnerability is confirmed as actively exploited and is listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Required action
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
CISA notes
https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/en-US/vulnerability/CVE-2026-41091 ; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41091
Description
Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Microsoft Defender allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Severity
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:CExploitation Context
as of October 14, 2026- CISA added CVE-2026-41091 to the KEV catalog on the day its CVE record was published. The median for entries added in 2026 so far is 15 days.
- It is one of 391 Microsoft entries in the CISA KEV catalog, and one of 40 added in 2026.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | Microsoft Microsoft Malware Protection Engine | 1.1.0.0 to <1.1.26040.8 |
References
1 LinksRecord Details
More from Microsoft
Windows SmartScreen Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability
Microsoft Defender Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Microsoft Defender Denial of Service Vulnerability
Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
Related
Tool categories
CVE record data © The MITRE Corporation, used under the CVE Terms of Use. Exploited-in-the-wild data from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (CC0). Exploit prediction scores by FIRST EPSS (first.org/epss). This site is not endorsed or certified by MITRE, NVD, CISA, or FIRST.