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Uncontrolled Search Path (DLL Hijack)Weakness · CWE-427

CVE-2026-0776

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.0 Published 2026-01-23
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Discord Client Uncontrolled Search Path Element Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Discord Client. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the discord_rpc module. The product loads a file from an unsecured location. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of a target user. Was ZDI-CAN-27057.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The discord_rpc module in Discord Client loads DLLs from an unsecured search path, allowing a local attacker with low-privileged code execution to place a malicious DLL in a directory that Discord will search when loading modules, achieving privilege escalation to the target user's context.

MitigationEnsure Discord's discord_rpc module loads DLLs only from secure, trusted directories using fully qualified paths, or remove the unsecured search path from the module's DLL loading mechanism.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate installed Discord Client
    Check common installation paths: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Discord, %PROGRAMFILES%\Discord, %APPDATA%\Discord. Use 'dir /s C:\discord.exe' or 'Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Filter discord.exe -Recurse' to find Discord executables.
    Affected if Discord is installed and the discord_rpc module is present in the installation directory.
  2. Identify discord_rpc module presence
    Look for discord_rpc.dll, discord-rpc.dll, or similar files in the Discord installation directory and subfolders. Use 'dir /s <DiscordPath>\*rpc*.dll' or list files matching *rpc*.
    Affected if The discord_rpc DLL module exists in the Discord installation directory.
  3. Check DLL loading behavior
    Examine the discord_rpc module's DLL loading mechanism. Use a tool like Process Monitor (ProcMon) to filter by Discord.exe and observe DLL load events, or inspect the binary with a PE analyzer to see how it calls LoadLibrary.
    Affected if The module uses relative or unqualified DLL paths that cause Windows to search unsecured directories (current directory, application directory, PATH).
  4. Identify writable directories in DLL search path
    For the Discord process, check which directories are in the DLL search order. Use 'icacls' on each directory in Discord's path to check for write permissions by low-privileged users (e.g., 'icacls C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Discord').
    Affected if A low-privileged attacker can write to any directory that Discord searches for DLLs before the secure installation directory.
  5. Confirm vulnerable configuration
    Compare the Discord and discord_rpc version against vendor release notes. Check if the discord_rpc module loads DLLs from paths writable by standard users (temp folders, downloads, user profile directories).
    Affected if Discord's discord_rpc module loads DLLs from unsecured search paths that include directories writable by lower-privileged users.

A user is affected if Discord with the discord_rpc module is installed and the module loads DLLs from directories writable by low-privileged users, allowing privilege escalation via DLL planting.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Ensure Discord's discord_rpc module loads DLLs only from secure, trusted directories using fully qualified paths, or remove the unsecured search path from the module's DLL loading mechanism.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-0776 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data