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High MSRC-CVE-2026-69414 1 CVE

Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Published Aug 14, 2026 · Updated Sep 3, 2026 · Revision 3

Summary

Impact: Elevation of Privilege. Microsoft rating: Important. Not known to be exploited, publicly disclosed before the fix — Exploitation More Likely. Customer action: Required.

Details

Microsoft Defender is disabled in my environment, why are vulnerability scanners showing that I am vulnerable to this issue?
Last version of the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine affected by this vulnerability: Last version of the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine affected by this vulnerability, 1.26070.7: 1.26070.7, First version of the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine with this vulnerability addressed: First version of the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine with this vulnerability addressed, 1.1.26080.3: 1.1.26080.3
See Manage Updates Baselines Microsoft Defender Antivirus for more information.
Vulnerability scanners are looking for specific binaries and version numbers on devices. Microsoft Defender files are still on disk even when disabled. Systems that have disabled Microsoft Defender are not in an exploitable state.
In response to a constantly changing threat landscape, Microsoft frequently updates malware definitions and the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine. In order to be effective in helping protect against new and prevalent threats, antimalware software must be kept up to date with these updates in a timely manner.
For enterprise deployments as well as end users, the default configuration in Microsoft antimalware software helps ensure that malware definitions and the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine are kept up to date automatically. Product documentation also recommends that products are configured for automatic updating.
Best practices recommend that customers regularly verify whether software distribution, such as the automatic deployment of Microsoft Malware Protection Engine updates and malware definitions, is working as expected in their environment.
Microsoft typically releases an update for the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine once a month or as needed to protect against new threats. Microsoft also typically updates the malware definitions three times daily and can increase the frequency when needed.
Depending on which Microsoft antimalware software is used and how it is configured, the software may search for engine and definition updates every day when connected to the Internet, up to multiple times daily. Customers can also choose to manually check for updates at any time.
The Microsoft Malware Protection Engine, mpengine.dll, provides the scanning, detection, and cleaning capabilities for Microsoft antivirus and antispyware software.
Defender runs on all supported version of Windows.
Yes, Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Endpoint Protection, Microsoft System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection and Microsoft Security Essentials.
Yes.  In addition to the changes that are listed for this vulnerability, this update includes defense-in-depth updates to help improve security-related features.

Security updates
1.1.26080.3 — https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/defenderupdates

Vulnerabilities 1

  • High 7.8
    CVE-2026-69414 Public exploit

    Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

    Microsoft is aware of an elevation of privilege in the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine in Microsoft Defender publicly referred to as "ShieldBreak ".

Revision history

  1. #3

    Microsoft has released an update to the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine that addresses the vulnerability identified by CVE-2026-69414. Please see the FAQ for more information on how to check if the new version has been installed.

  2. #2

    CWE added. Informational change only.

  3. #1

    Information published.

References