Description

Use after free in Windows Autopilot allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.0",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T17:18:57.187Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T17:18:57.187Z",
  "executiveSummary": "A use-after-free vulnerability exists within Windows Autopilot, allowing an authorized local attacker to elevate privileges on targeted systems. The vulnerability resides in memory management operations associated with the affected product.\nSuccessful exploitation of this flaw enables a malicious actor with local execution capabilities to execute arbitrary code or commands in the context of a higher privileged user account, bypassing standard Windows security boundaries.\nThe affected product is Windows Autopilot, specifically involving local processing and resource handling mechanisms. The risk implication is significant as it facilitates local privilege escalation (LPE), which is frequently leveraged in multi-stage attacks to compromise entire host operating systems.\nAttacker capabilities require local access to the target machine and authorization to interact with the vulnerable component. Exploitation requirements mandate that the attacker already possesses execution rights on the local system to manipulate memory states and trigger the use-after-free condition.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability is classified as a use-after-free (UAF) memory corruption flaw, occurring within the internal handling of objects by Windows Autopilot. A use-after-free condition typically arises when a program continues to use a pointer after the memory allocation associated with it has been deallocated or freed.\nThe root cause stems from improper memory management and lack of null pointer assignment following the deallocation of sensitive internal structures within the vulnerable component. If an authorized attacker can predictably manipulate the heap lifecycle or timing of these allocations, dangling pointers can be leveraged to reference arbitrary memory locations or execute reused function pointers.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the attacker establishes local execution access on the target system running Windows Autopilot. Second, the attacker interacts with the vulnerable component to initiate a sequence of operations that allocates, frees, and subsequently references the targeted memory object. Third, through heap grooming or controlled memory manipulation, the attacker replaces the freed memory block with malicious payload data or manipulated object structures. Finally, when the application attempts to access the dangling pointer, it executes attacker-controlled data or hijacked control flow paths.\nThe affected component is associated with Windows Autopilot local processing logic. Authentication requirements dictate that the attacker must be locally authenticated to the machine, and privilege requirements specify that the actor must possess authorization to invoke the affected local mechanisms. The network exposure is strictly local, meaning remote exploitation over a network interface is not directly feasible without prior local access.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes local privilege escalation, allowing the attacker to transition from a standard user context to an elevated security context, such as SYSTEM or Administrator, enabling complete control over the affected operating system instance."
}