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New Windows Error Reporting Vulnerability Lets Attackers Escalate to Gain SYSTEM Access

Cybersecuritynews •Abinaya • March 27, 2026

A newly analyzed local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows Error Reporting (WER) service allows attackers to easily gain full SYSTEM access. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20817, was considered so structurally dangerous that Microsoft completely removed the vulnerable feature rather than attempting a traditional code patch. The security flaw exists within the main executable library […]

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This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Critical Windows Error Reporting Vulnerability Allows SYSTEM Access via Privilege Escalation A local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows Error Reporting (WER) service, tracked as CVE-2026-20817, has been identified, allowing attackers to gain full SYSTEM access. This flaw enables local users with standard rights to escalate their privileges through improper permission handling. Due to the severity of the vulnerability, Microsoft has opted to completely remove the affected feature instead of issuing a traditional patch. The vulnerability was published on January 13, 2026, and the first proof of concept (PoC) was released on February 18, 2026. This poses a significant risk to systems running affected versions of Windows. Organizations are urged to assess their systems for exposure to this vulnerability. 2 sources 73

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New Windows Error Reporting Vulnerability Lets Attackers Escalate to Gain SYSTEM Access

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Extracted Entities

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