CVE-2026-50326
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 · uneditedUse after free in Windows Unified Consent System allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
In the news
Third-party coverage- Microsoft July 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes massive 570 flaws, 3 zero-days
- Microsoft CVE Summary - Bleeping Computer
Surfaced from public web coverage — external links open in a new tab.
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 · moderate confidenceA Use-After-Free (UAF) memory corruption vulnerability in the Windows Unified Consent System allows a locally authorized attacker to exploit freed memory and achieve privilege escalation from their current user context to higher system privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data< 10.0.19044.7548< 10.0.19045.7548< 10.0.26100.8875< 10.0.26200.8875< 10.0.28000.2269< 10.0.28000.2525< 10.0.26100.33158CVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check Windows version build numberRun 'winver' or 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Version"' to obtain the exact build numberAffected if The build number is lower than 10.0.19044.7548 (Windows 10 21h2), 10.0.19045.7548 (Windows 10 22h2), 10.0.26100.8875 (Windows 11 24h2), 10.0.26200.8875 (Windows 11 25h2), 10.0.28000.2269 or 10.0.28000.2525 (Windows 11 26h1), or 10.0.26100.33158 (Windows Server 2025)
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Verify Unified Consent component existsCheck for the presence of Unified Consent-related DLLs or services: look in %SystemRoot%\System32 for consent.exe or related consent UI components; query registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI for Unified Consent settingsAffected if The Unified Consent component (consent.exe or related DLLs) is present on the system
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Check current user privilegesRun 'whoami /groups' to list current user group membershipsAffected if The user has local account privileges but is not already running as SYSTEM or Administrators, as the vulnerability allows escalation from regular user to SYSTEM
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Monitor for consent.exe process anomaliesUse Task Manager or 'tasklist | findstr consent' to check for consent.exe processes; look for unexpected child processes spawned from consent.exe or abnormal memory usageAffected if consent.exe is running with unusual child processes or exhibiting unexpected behavior indicating exploitation
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Review Security event logs for privilege escalation attemptsOpen Event Viewer, navigate to Security logs, and filter for Event ID 4688 (process creation) where Process Name contains 'consent.exe' and suspicious new processes are created; also check for Audit Success on privilege use eventsAffected if There are logs showing consent.exe spawning unexpected processes or privilege escalation events from a non-privileged account context
The system is likely affected if it runs a Windows version lower than the patched builds listed AND has the Unified Consent component enabled, with a local user account present that could attempt exploitation.
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.
dbcve · scoped10.0.19044.754810.0.19045.754810.0.26100.8875
Apply Microsoft security updates for Windows when available; restrict local user permissions and monitor for suspicious process activity targeting the Unified Consent component.
Windows 10 21h2: build 10.0.19044.7548 or later | Windows 10 22h2: build 10.0.19045.7548 or later | Windows 11 24h2: build 10.0.26100.8875 or later | Windows 11 25h2: build 10.0.26200.8875 or later | Windows 11 26h1: build 10.0.28000.2525 or later | Windows Server 2025: build 10.0.26100.33158 or lat
- Open Windows Settings and navigate to Windows Update
- Click 'Check for updates' and install all available updates
- Restart the computer if prompted
- Verify the installed version by running 'winver' command and confirm the build number matches or exceeds the fixed version for your Windows edition
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,680.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-50326 — 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-2026-50326 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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