What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-85879: Windows Subsystem for Linux Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.0 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-10-13 · updated 2026-10-31
• Weakness: CWE-367

Description

Time-of-check time-of-use (toctou) race condition in Windows Subsystem for Linux allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.

Affected products

• Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2): from 2.0.0 before 2.7.10 — fixed in 2.7.10
• Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2): from 5.0.0.0 before 2.7.10 — fixed in 2.7.10

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) 2.7.10; Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) 2.7.10. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-85879

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