CVE-2026-85842 Windows Image Acquisition Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
An authorized local attacker can exploit a format string vulnerability in Windows Image Acquisition to elevate privileges.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-85842?
CVE-2026-85842 is a high-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 21h2, published on 13 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Use of externally-controlled format string in Windows Image Acquisition allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Weakness: CWE-134
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-85842?
It affects 8 products.
Products include Microsoft Windows 10 21h2, Microsoft Windows 10 22h2, Microsoft Windows 11 23h2, Microsoft Windows 11 24h2, Microsoft Windows 11 25h2, Microsoft Windows 11 26h1 and 2 more.
How do I fix CVE-2026-85842?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-85842 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-85842 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-85842 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows 10 21h2
- CVE-2025-21333 Microsoft Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Heap-based Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2025-21334 Microsoft Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Use-After-Free
- CVE-2025-21335 Microsoft Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Use-After-Free
- CVE-2026-42904 Windows TCP/IP Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
- CVE-2026-105733 Windows Hyper-V Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Sources
Also known as GHSA-46xw-6q5j-6qcj.