MSRC-CVE-2026-20938 — Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Summary

Impact: Elevation of Privilege. Microsoft rating: Important. Not known to be exploited — Exploitation Less Likely. Customer action: Required.

Details

What privileges could be gained by an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability?
An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain Virtual Trust Level 1 (VTL1) privileges.

Security updates
10.0.26200.7623 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5074109
10.0.22631.6491 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5073455

Vulnerabilities 1

High 7.8

CVE-2026-20938

Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Untrusted pointer dereference in Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

Microsoft Windows 11 Version 24H2 Windows 11 version 23H2 Windows 11 Version 25H2 Windows

Jan 13, 2026

Revision history

2026-01-13 #1
Information published.

References

CVE-2026-20938 Windows Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) Enclave Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability - HTML
https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20938
Microsoft Exploitability Index
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/exploitability-index?rtc=1
Microsoft Support Lifecycle
https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle
Common Vulnerability Scoring System
https://www.first.org/cvss