CVE-2026-6421
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 · uneditedA vulnerability has been found in Mobatek MobaXterm Home Edition up to 26.1. This affects an unknown part in the library msimg32.dll. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled search path. An attack has to be approached locally. The attack is considered to have high complexity. It is indicated that the exploitability is difficult. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. Upgrading to version 26.2 is able to mitigate this issue. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component. The vendor was contacted early, responded in a very professional manner and quickly released a fixed version of the affected product.
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 confidenceMobatax MobaXterm Home Edition versions up to 26.1 are vulnerable to DLL search order hijacking in the msimg32.dll library. The application uses an uncontrolled search path when loading this DLL, allowing a local attacker to place a malicious DLL in a location where it will be loaded by the application, potentially leading to code execution.
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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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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Locate MobaXterm installationCheck if MobaXterm Home Edition is installed. Common installation paths include C:\Program Files\MobaXterm\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\MobaXterm\. Look for MobaXterm.exe in these directories or by searching the Start menu.Affected if MobaXterm Home Edition is present on the system
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Determine installed versionRight-click on MobaXterm.exe, select Properties, then go to the Details tab to view the Product version field. Alternatively, check the version shown in the Start menu shortcut properties.Affected if Version is 26.1 or any earlier version (the affected range is up to and including 26.1)
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Check DLL loading behaviorUse Process Monitor (procmon.exe) from Sysinternals to filter by process name MobaXterm.exe and observe DLL load operations. Specifically look for load attempts of msimg32.dll and note the path from which it is loaded.Affected if The application loads msimg32.dll from a directory other than the Windows system directory (C:\Windows\System32\) or the application directory, indicating an insecure DLL search path is being used
If MobaXterm Home Edition version 26.1 or earlier is installed and it loads msimg32.dll from an uncontrolled search path, the environment is vulnerable to DLL search order hijacking.
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 · scopedUpgrade MobaXterm Home Edition to version 26.2 or later to obtain the vendor patch for this DLL hijacking vulnerability.
26.2
- Obtain MobaXterm version 26.2 from the official vendor website (download.mobatek.net or mobaxterm.mobatek.net)
- Uninstall the current version of MobaXterm if already installed
- Install the downloaded MobaXterm 26.2 executable
- Launch MobaXterm to verify the installation completed successfully
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-6421 — 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-2026-6421 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data