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High · 7.8 Known exploited Publicly disclosed Public exploit CVE-2026-41091 EUVD-2026-31101GHSA-h776-j9jw-992p

Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Published May 20, 2026 · Updated Aug 10, 2026 · Assigned by microsoft

Vendor: Microsoft Product: Microsoft Malware Protection Engine

Description

Improper link resolution before file access ('link following') in Microsoft Defender allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Microsoft Microsoft Malware Protection Engine 1.1.0.0 – < 1.1.26040.8 1.1.26040.8

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 4 repositories

  • ashrafzaryouh/CVE-2026-41091 ★ 12 · May 21, 2026

    CVE-2026-41091

  • tc4dy/CVE-2026-41091-PoC-Exploit ★ 5 · Jun 20, 2026

    CVE-2026-41091 RedSun | Microsoft Defender LPE exploit. Low-privileged users gain NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM - via Cloud Files API + NTFS junction trickery. Forces Defender to write malicious payloads to Sy…

  • s4m98/RedSun- ★ 1 · Aug 9, 2026

    Windwos Zero Day Local PrivESc Exploit (CVE-2026-41091)

  • ridhinva/defender-privilege-escalation-scanner ★ 0 · May 22, 2026

    Scanner: CVE-2026-41091/45498 Microsoft Defender LPE/DoS — Python scanner for Windows Defender privilege escalation (CISA KEV)

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Advisories 2

References