CVE-2026-50462 is a Windows Ancillary Function Driver for WinSock elevation of privilege vulnerability caused by external control of a file name or path. Microsoft rates it High severity with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 and temporal score of 6.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). The issue is local-only, requires low privileges, and does not need user interaction. Microsoft reports no public disclosure and no known exploitation, with exploit code maturity listed as UNPROVEN. Enterprise risk is primarily on systems where local code execution or low-privilege access is already possible.

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 with HIGH confidentiality, HIGH integrity, and HIGH availability impacts.
- Exploitation likelihood: Exploitation Less Likely; the vector is LOCAL, with LOW attack complexity, LOW privileges required, and NO user interaction.
- Severity for enterprise: High technical severity, but risk is lower for internet-facing exposure because exploitation requires local access. Internal hosts, multi-user systems, and environments where untrusted local code can run are more relevant.
- Patch status: available

Affected systems:
- Windows 10 1607
- Windows 10 1809
- Windows 10 21H2
- Windows 10 22H2
- Windows 11 24H2
- Windows 11 25H2
- Windows 11 26H1
- Windows 11 unspecified
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2025