Executive brief
Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) is a Windows component that manages digital certificates for organizations. A heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability allows an authenticated local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges, potentially compromising certificate infrastructure and the Windows systems that depend on it.
Technical details
A heap-based buffer overflow exists in Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS), a core component of Windows Server environments for certificate lifecycle management. The vulnerability requires an attacker to have valid local authentication credentials and physical or remote local access to exploit. An authorized attacker can trigger the overflow condition to gain SYSTEM-level privilege escalation on the affected host. The vulnerability has been assigned CVSS 7.8 and was published in September 2026; patch availability and public exploit status can be verified through Microsoft's security bulletin.
Affected products
- Microsoft Windows Server <UNKNOWN>
Timeline
- 2026-09-08: disclosed