Authentication Bypass in Azure Windows Virtual Machine Agent
CVE-2026-26117 is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the Azure Windows Virtual Machine Agent / Azure Connected Machine Agent for Arc-enabled servers. The issue is described as an authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel, allowing an authorized attacker to bypass intended authentication controls locally and gain higher privileges on the affected system. The provided content identifies the flaw as affecting the Azure Windows Virtual Machine Agent class of components and classifies it as an elevation of privilege issue with CVSS 7.8.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No valid public exploits. Mallory filtered out 1 candidate as fakes, detection scripts, or README-only repos.
All candidate exploits were filtered out by Mallory's validation.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
18 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows client of Azure Arc that could let a low-privileged user hijack service communications, impersonate the machine's cloud identity, escalate to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, and connect it to an attacker-controlled tenant.
An elevation of privilege vulnerability in Azure Connected Machine Agent used for managing Azure Arc-connected on-premises systems.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.