Description

Missing authentication for critical function in Windows Remote Desktop Services allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T17:18:11.560Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T17:18:11.560Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability involves a missing authentication mechanism within a critical function in Windows Remote Desktop Services, leading to local elevation of privileges.\nThe primary impact of this security flaw allows an authenticated attacker to execute privileged operations and elevate their security context on the target host.\nThe affected product is Windows Remote Desktop Services.\nThe risk implications are significant, as a locally authenticated adversary can leverage this vulnerability to bypass standard authorization controls and gain unauthorized administrative or system-level access to the operating system.\nAttacker capabilities are restricted to local execution, meaning the threat actor must already possess valid credentials or local access to the target system.\nExploitation requirements dictate that the attacker must be locally authorized and able to interact with the vulnerable component within Windows Remote Desktop Services to trigger the flaw and successfully elevate privileges.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability stems from an absolute lack of proper authentication checks for a critical function implemented within Windows Remote Desktop Services.\nThe vulnerable component handles sensitive operational requests or state transitions within the Remote Desktop Services architecture without adequately validating the cryptographic or session-based identity and authorization level of the calling process or user.\nAuthentication requirements for the affected function are improperly bypassed or entirely absent, allowing locally executing code to invoke critical routines normally restricted to higher integrity levels or privileged user contexts.\nPrivilege requirements for the initial execution phase require only an authorized local user state, which can be achieved via standard standard-user accounts or compromised low-privilege sessions.\nNetwork exposure is strictly local, as the vulnerable function relies on local inter-process communication mechanisms or internal subsystem interfaces exposed exclusively to the local operating system environment.\nThe exploitation method relies on the attacker interacting directly with the unauthenticated critical function via programmatic API calls, command-line utilities, or custom-crafted local payloads designed to interface with the vulnerable Remote Desktop Services component.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the attacker establishes a local session on the target system using valid credentials. Second, the attacker locates and targets the specific critical function within Windows Remote Desktop Services lacking authentication enforcement. Third, the attacker invokes the function directly without supplying valid privileged credentials or session tokens. Fourth, the vulnerable component processes the unauthenticated request, failing to validate the caller's privilege tier. Finally, the function executes the privileged action, granting the attacker elevated privileges on the local machine.\nPayload behavior involves executing unauthorized administrative commands, spawning high-integrity processes, or modifying system configurations previously restricted by discretionary access control lists.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes full local system compromise, persistence establishment, credential harvesting, and the ability to execute arbitrary code with elevated system privileges."
}