Description
Use after free in Windows Graphics Kernel allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Published: 2026-07-14
Score: 7.8 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

Impact

The vulnerability is a use-after-free condition in the Windows Graphics Kernel that can be triggered by a privileged local process that loads or interacts with a DirectX driver. Based on the description, it is inferred that an attacker would trigger the flaw by loading or interacting with a DirectX driver through a local process. Exploiting the premature deallocation allows the attacker to write arbitrary data to a kernel memory region, leading to elevated privileges and enabling execution of malicious code at the highest level on the host.

Affected Systems

Affected releases include Windows 10 version 1809, 21H2, and 22H2, Windows 11 version 24H2, 25H2, and 26H1, and Windows Server releases 2019, 2022, and 2025, both in normal and Server Core installations. The CVE impacts x86, x64, and ARM64 builds as specified in the CPE listings.

Risk and Exploitability

The CVSS score of 7.8 characterizes the flaw as a moderate-to-high severity vulnerability, while the EPSS score of <1% (approximately 0.00311) indicates a very low likelihood of exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability is not tracked in CISA’s KEV catalog. Exploitation requires local user privileges sufficient to load DirectX drivers; thus an attacker with such access can elevate to system or administrator level, granting unrestricted control over the affected machine.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on July 31, 2026 at 07:35 UTC.

Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

  • Apply the Microsoft security update for CVE‑2026‑50493 as published on the Microsoft Update Catalog.
  • Restrict local user accounts so that only trusted and validated accounts can load or install DirectX drivers, thereby limiting the opportunity for a malicious local process to trigger the flaw.
  • Deploy application control policies such as AppLocker or Device Guard to prohibit the loading of any DirectX driver that is not signed by a trusted vendor and to alert on exceptions from approved driver signatures.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on July 31, 2026 at 07:35 UTC.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories yet.

History

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 20:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Use after free in Windows Graphics Kernel allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
Title DirectX Graphics Kernel Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
First Time appeared Microsoft
Microsoft windows 10 1809
Microsoft windows 10 21h2
Microsoft windows 10 22h2
Microsoft windows 11 24h2
Microsoft windows 11 25h2
Microsoft windows 11 26h1
Microsoft windows Server 2019
Microsoft windows Server 2022
Microsoft windows Server 2025
Weaknesses CWE-416
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_10_1809:*:*:*:*:*:*:x86:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_10_21H2:*:*:*:*:*:*:x86:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_10_22H2:*:*:*:*:*:*:x64:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11_24H2:*:*:*:*:*:*:arm64:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11_25H2:*:*:*:*:*:*:arm64:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_11_26H1:*:*:*:*:*:*:x64:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2019:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2022:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2025:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Microsoft
Microsoft windows 10 1809
Microsoft windows 10 21h2
Microsoft windows 10 22h2
Microsoft windows 11 24h2
Microsoft windows 11 25h2
Microsoft windows 11 26h1
Microsoft windows Server 2019
Microsoft windows Server 2022
Microsoft windows Server 2025
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C'}


Subscriptions

Microsoft Windows 10 1809 Windows 10 21h2 Windows 10 22h2 Windows 11 24h2 Windows 11 25h2 Windows 11 26h1 Windows Server 2019 Windows Server 2022 Windows Server 2025
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: microsoft

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-03T22:59:19.378Z

Reserved: 2026-06-04T18:59:53.337Z

Link: CVE-2026-50493

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-07-14T19:40:41.955Z

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-07-31T07:45:12Z

Weaknesses