CVE-2026-87282 in VirtualBox
Summary
by MITRE • 09/16/2026
Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). The supported version that is affected is 7.2.16. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. While the vulnerability is in Oracle VM VirtualBox, attacks may significantly impact additional products (scope change). Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in unauthorized ability to cause a hang or frequently repeatable crash (complete DOS) of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 6.0 (Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/16/2026
The identified vulnerability resides within the core component of Oracle VM VirtualBox, specifically affecting version 7.2.16 and potentially other supported releases depending on the specific code path exploited. This flaw represents a significant stability issue that can be leveraged by an attacker with high privileges who has already established logon access to the host infrastructure where the virtualization software is executing. The nature of this vulnerability allows for easy exploitation, meaning that once the necessary authentication and privilege levels are achieved, the technical steps required to trigger the flaw are straightforward and do not require complex conditions or user interaction. This ease of exploitation lowers the barrier for entry significantly compared to vulnerabilities requiring remote code execution without prior access or those needing social engineering tactics.
From a technical perspective, the core issue manifests as an instability within the VirtualBox engine that leads to service disruption rather than data compromise or privilege escalation in this specific instance. Successful exploitation results in either a hang of the application or a frequently repeatable crash, effectively causing a complete denial of service condition for Oracle VM VirtualBox itself. This means that any virtual machines running on the affected host may become inaccessible, and the management interface provided by VirtualBox becomes unresponsive until the process is manually restarted or crashes completely. The impact is localized to availability, as indicated by the CVSS metrics which show zero impact on confidentiality and integrity but a high impact on availability.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond just the virtualization software itself due to scope change characteristics inherent in hypervisor vulnerabilities. While the direct effect is the disruption of Oracle VM VirtualBox, the consequences can ripple out to affect additional products or services that rely on the stability of the underlying host system. If critical business applications are hosted within these virtual machines, their availability is directly compromised during the outage caused by the crash or hang. This creates a cascading failure scenario where the security incident in one component leads to broader operational downtime across multiple dependent systems. The requirement for high privileged access with logon means that this vulnerability primarily poses a risk from insider threats or attackers who have already gained significant foothold within the network, such as through compromised administrative credentials.
In terms of industry standard classifications, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which covers uncontrolled resource consumption leading to denial of service conditions. The attack vector is classified under Local Access (AV:L) in CVSS 3.1 terminology, requiring Low Attack Complexity and High Privileges, but no User Interaction. This places the risk profile firmly within the context of insider threats or post-exploitation activities where an attacker has already bypassed perimeter defenses and authentication mechanisms to gain elevated rights on the host machine. The ATT&CK framework would categorize this under techniques related to Impact, specifically Denial of Service, as it aims to disrupt service availability rather than exfiltrate data or maintain persistence through code execution.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must focus primarily on access control and system hardening since patching is the primary long-term solution but may not be immediately available in all environments. Organizations should enforce strict least-privilege principles, ensuring that only essential administrators have high-level privileges on systems running Oracle VM VirtualBox. Multi-factor authentication should be implemented for administrative accounts to reduce the risk of credential compromise leading to this vulnerability's exploitation. Additionally, monitoring solutions should be configured to detect unusual spikes in resource consumption or unexpected process terminations associated with VirtualBox processes, which could indicate an attempted exploit. Isolating virtualization hosts from general user networks and restricting their exposure further reduces the attack surface available to potential adversaries who might attempt to escalate privileges locally. Regular updates to Oracle VM VirtualBox are critical as newer versions likely contain fixes for this core instability issue, ensuring that known flaws do not remain exploitable in production environments.