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.
7.2$0-$5k0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component Core. Executing a manipulation can lead to Local Privilege Escalation. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-21989. The attack needs to be launched locally. No exploit is available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.1.14/7.2.4. This vulnerability affects an unknown part of the component Core. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a local privilege escalation vulnerability. As an impact it is known to affect 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. 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 creation, deletion or modification access to critical data or all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data as well as unauthorized access to critical data or complete access to all Oracle VM VirtualBox accessible data and unauthorized ability to cause a partial denial of service (partial DOS) of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 8.1 (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:L).

The advisory is shared for download at oracle.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-21989 since 01/05/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. The exploitation requires an enhanced level of successful authentication. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 01/22/2026).

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at EUVD (EUVD-2026-3523) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-0172). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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: 7.2

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

CNA Base Score: 8.1
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

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
01/22/2026 +2 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: oracle.com

Advisory: oracle.com
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-21989 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-21989
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-342100
EUVD: 🔒
CERT Bund: WID-SEC-2026-0172 - Oracle Virtualization: Mehrere Schwachstellen

Entryinfo

Created: 01/20/2026 23:52
Updated: 01/22/2026 09:47
Changes: 01/20/2026 23:52 (63), 01/21/2026 00:39 (1), 01/22/2026 09:47 (7)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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!