Privilege Escalation in Windows Admin Center
CVE-2026-26119 is an improper authentication vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Admin Center (WAC), the browser-based management platform for administering Windows systems. Microsoft describes the issue as allowing an authorized attacker to elevate privileges over a network. Public reporting and researcher commentary indicate the flaw affected the HTTP service used by Windows Admin Center and, under certain conditions, could be abused as an authentication reflection issue against WAC’s web interface. More detailed reporting attributes the finding to Andrea Pierini of Semperis and states that exploitation involved weaknesses in how WAC authenticated requests to privileged management endpoints, enabling an attacker with valid low-privilege access to obtain the rights of the user context running the affected application. Microsoft patched the issue in Windows Admin Center version 2511, released in December 2025.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
60 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A vulnerability discovered via a related attack strategy that targets the HTTP service of Windows Admin Center.
A vulnerability discovered via a related attack strategy that targets the HTTP service of Windows Admin Center.
A vulnerability affecting the HTTP service of Windows Admin Center, mentioned as a related discovery from a similar attack strategy.
A critical remote privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Admin Center that can be abused via authentication reflection to achieve NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM access and potentially full domain compromise, especially on AD CS servers.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.