CVE-2026-106030: Missing Authorization in NordVPN for Windows

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.8 v4.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-16 · updated 2026-10-16
Weakness: CWE-863

Description

NordVPN for Windows allows local attackers to stop unprotected Windows system services and change their startup type to Manual via named pipes. The NordVPN user-mode application allows a low-privileged attacker to act as a trusted process and connect to the named pipe "\\.\pipe\nord-security\v1\NordVpnService\Server". The attacker can then invoke the "ISettingsGrpc.StopService" and "ISettingsGrpc.ChangeServiceStartType" methods with an arbitrary service name, allowing them to stop any unprotected Windows service and change its startup type. This leads to denial of service of critical system services. Services protected by Windows (PPL processes, Windows Tamper Protection), such as Windows Defender, cannot be stopped or reconfigured. This issue was fixed in version 8.12

Affected products

Nord Security NordVPN: before 8.12 — fixed in 8.12

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Nord Security NordVPN 8.12. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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