# CVE-2026-41858: Weak cryptography in windows-utilities-release

> Weak randomness in password generation allows attackers to recover Administrator passwords, enabling privilege escalation and account takeover.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 4 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f9p6-prpf-3757

## What is CVE-2026-41858?

CVE-2026-41858 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cloud Foundry Foundation windows-utilities-release, published on 4 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Weak Randomness / Insecure Cryptographic Primitive (CWE-338) in Get-RandomPassword in BOSH-Ecosystem / windows-utilities-release allows a network attacker to estimate VM boot time and reconstruct a small candidate list to recover the Administrator password. The randomize_password job exists solely to lock the local Administrator account behind an unguessable password as a hardening control. Because the password is derived from a predictable, clock-seeded PRNG, a network attacker who can estimate VM boot time can reconstruct a small candidate list and recover the Administrator password, defeating the hardening control.

Affected versions:
- windows-utilities-release: all versions prior to v0.23.0 (inclusive); fixed in v0.23.0 or later

Weakness: CWE-338 (Use of Cryptographically Weak Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG))

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-41858?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-41858?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-41858 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-41858 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-41858 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-41858 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-41858 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cloud Foundry Foundation windows-utilities-release, published on 4 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-41858 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cloud Foundry Foundation windows-utilities-release. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41858/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41858/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-41858
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41858
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-41858

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-41858/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.