Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4 Core privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Core. The manipulation results in Local Privilege Escalation. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-21983. Attacking locally is a requirement. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4. Affected is an unknown function of the component Core. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a local privilege escalation vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Vulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are 7.1.14 and 7.2.4. Difficult to exploit 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 takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 7.5 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

The advisory is available at oracle.com. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-21983 since 01/05/2026. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Local access is required to approach this attack. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 01/24/2026). This vulnerability is assigned to T1068 by the MITRE ATT&CK project.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 296414 (Oracle VM VirtualBox (January 2026 CPU)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (296414), EUVD (EUVD-2026-3529) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0172). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Oracle VM

Productinfo

Type

• Virtualization Software

Vendor

• Oracle

Name

• VM VirtualBox

Version

• 7.1.14
• 7.2.4

License

• open-source (GNU GPLv3)

Website

• Vendor: https://www.oracle.com

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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