CVE-2026-11967
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 · uneditedMobaXterm Personal Edition (Portable), in its 26.3 version (Build 5154), allows arbitrary code execution by loading a malicious DLL located in the same directory as the portable executable. Because the application automatically loads the winspool.drv library from that location during startup, an attacker with local access can place a specially crafted DLL alongside the executable to be executed when the victim launches the application.
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 confidenceMobaXterm Personal Edition Portable version 26.3 (Build 5154) is vulnerable to DLL planting/hijacking. The application automatically loads winspool.drv from its own directory during startup, allowing a local attacker with write access to the portable executable's directory to place a malicious DLL that will be executed with the victim's privileges when the application launches.
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
- Authentication
- X
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- X
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify MobaXterm versionRun MobaXterm, go to Help > About, or right-click the executable and view Properties to find the version and build numberAffected if Version is 26.3 with Build 5154 (or any 26.x portable version, as the vulnerability exists in this release)
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Confirm portable edition usageCheck if MobaXterm is running from a USB drive, network share, or any directory outside the standard Program Files installation path. Look for MobaXterm_portable.exe or execution from a user-writable locationAffected if Running the portable version (MobaXterm_portable.exe) from any writable directory rather than a proper installed instance
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Verify current working directory is writableRight-click the folder containing the MobaXterm executable, go to Properties > Security, and check if standard users have Write permission to that directoryAffected if The directory containing MobaXterm.exe grants write access to untrusted users or groups
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Inspect for suspicious winspool.drv in executable directoryCheck the folder where MobaXterm.exe resides for any file named winspool.drv that was not part of the original installationAffected if winspool.drv exists alongside the executable in a non-system directory, indicating potential DLL hijacking presence
A user is affected if they run MobaXterm Personal Edition portable version 26.3 (Build 5154) from a directory where untrusted parties can write files, enabling DLL hijacking of winspool.drv.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataReplace the portable version with the installed version of MobaXterm if available, or ensure the directory containing the portable executable is not writable by untrusted users. The vendor should implement safe DLL loading practices (e.g., using SetDllDirectory with a safe path or LoadLibrary with an explicit full path to system directories).
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-11967 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-11967 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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