# CVE-2026-8036: Local privilege escalation in NI-PAL

> A local authenticated user can exploit improper input validation in NI-PAL to access arbitrary system memory and escalate privileges.

- **Severity:** High 8.4 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 4 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-ghx9-cc3j-7qrg

## What is CVE-2026-8036?

CVE-2026-8036 is a high-severity vulnerability in NI-PAL, published on 2 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Improper input validation in NI-PAL may allow a local authenticated user to access arbitrary system memory, potentially leading to privilege escalation. This vulnerability affects NI-PAL 26.3.0 and prior versions on Windows and Linux.

Weakness: CWE-1285 (Improper Validation of Specified Index, Position, or Offset in Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-8036?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ni Ni-Pal.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-8036?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-8036 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-8036 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-8036 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in NI-PAL

- [CVE-2021-38304](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38304/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2026-8035](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-8035/): NULL pointer dereference in NI-PAL (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-8036 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-8036 is a high-severity vulnerability in NI-PAL, published on 2 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-8036 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: NI-PAL. 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-2026-8036/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-8036/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-8036
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-8036
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-8036

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-8036/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.