CVE-2026-50315 is a Windows Image Acquisition elevation of privilege vulnerability caused by a NULL pointer dereference. Microsoft rates it as CVSS v3.1 7.8 (High) with a temporal score of 6.8; the vector is local attack, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, and unchanged scope, with high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact. Microsoft states it is not publicly disclosed, not exploited, and exploit code maturity is unproven. This is an enterprise-relevant local privilege escalation issue rather than a network-exposed remote attack.

Highlights:
- CVSS scores: Base 7.8 - Temporal 6.8
- Exploit status & code maturity: Publicly Disclosed: No; Exploited: No; Exploit Code Maturity: UNPROVEN
- Impact: Elevation of Privilege; confidentiality, integrity, and availability impacts are HIGH
- Exploitation likelihood: Exploitation Unlikely; local vector (AV:L), low attack complexity, low privileges required, and no user interaction
- Severity for enterprise: High severity by CVSS, but risk is primarily on systems where local code execution or low-privilege access is already possible; not a network-only exposure issue
- Patch status: available; customer action required

Affected systems:
- Windows 11 24H2
- Windows 11 25H2
- Windows 11 26H1
- Windows 11 unspecified
- Windows Server 2025