Summary
Impact: Remote Code Execution. Microsoft rating: Critical. Not known to be exploited — Exploitation Less Likely. Customer action: Required.
Details
How could an attacker exploit the vulnerability?
An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending specially crafted network traffic to a vulnerable Windows system. If successful, the malicious network packets could trigger a flaw in how the Windows kernel processes certain TCP/IP data, potentially allowing the attacker to run code with system-level privileges without needing to sign in or interact with a user.
Security updates
10.0.20348.5256 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5094128
10.0.26100.32995 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5094125
10.0.26200.8655 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5094126
10.0.22631.7219 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5093998
10.0.28000.2269 — https://support.microsoft.com/help/5095051
Vulnerabilities 1
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Critical 9.8CVE-2026-45657 EPSS 15%
Windows Kernel Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Use after free in Windows Kernel allows an unauthorized attacker to execute code over a network.
Revision history
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#1
Information published.
References
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CVE-2026-45657 Windows Kernel Remote Code Execution Vulnerability - HTML
https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-45657
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Microsoft Exploitability Index
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/exploitability-index?rtc=1
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Microsoft Support Lifecycle
https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle
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Common Vulnerability Scoring System
https://www.first.org/cvss