Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4 Core Local Privilege Escalation

CVSS Meta Temp Score
CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.
Current Exploit Price (≈)
Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.
CTI Interest Score
Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
7.3$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4 and classified as critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Core. Performing a manipulation results in Local Privilege Escalation. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-21990. The attack needs to be approached locally. There is no available exploit. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4. This affects an unknown part of the component Core. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a local privilege escalation vulnerability. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

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. 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 takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 8.2 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

The advisory is shared at oracle.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2026-21990 since 01/05/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. Additional levels of successful authentication are necessary for exploitation. Neither technical details nor an exploit are publicly available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 01/24/2026).

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-2026-3522) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0172). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

  • Oracle VM

Productinfo

Type

Vendor

Name

Version

License

Website

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 7.4
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 7.3

VulDB Base Score: 6.7
VulDB Temp Score: 6.4
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 8.2
CNA Vector (oracle): 🔒

CVSSv2info

AVACAuCIA
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
💳💳💳💳💳💳
VectorComplexityAuthenticationConfidentialityIntegrityAvailability
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
UnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Local Privilege Escalation
CWE: Unknown
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-DayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock
TodayUnlockUnlockUnlockUnlock

Nessus ID: 296414
Nessus Name: Oracle VM VirtualBox (January 2026 CPU)

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Timelineinfo

01/05/2026 CVE reserved
01/20/2026 +15 days Advisory disclosed
01/20/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
01/24/2026 +4 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: oracle.com

Advisory: oracle.com
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-21990 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-21990
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-342093
EUVD: 🔒
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2026-0172 - Oracle Virtualization: Mehrere Schwachstellen

Entryinfo

Created: 01/20/2026 23:51
Updated: 01/24/2026 09:19
Changes: 01/20/2026 23:51 (62), 01/21/2026 00:39 (1), 01/22/2026 09:47 (7), 01/24/2026 09:19 (2)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Discussion

No comments yet. Languages: en.

Please log in to comment.

◂ PreviousOverviewNext ▸

Want to know what is going to be exploited?

We predict KEV entries!