Microsoft Patches Rogue Planet Defender Flaw That Can Grant SYSTEM Privileges
Summary: Microsoft released updates for a Defender privilege escalation flaw called RoguePlanet, tracked as CVE-2026-50656 with a CVSS score of 7.8, in the Malware Protection Engine (mpengine.dll); it is fixed in engine version 1.1.26060.3008. The researcher Chaotic Eclipse (Nightmare-Eclipse) disclosed it as a race condition that spawns a SYSTEM-level shell, said it worked on fully patched Windows systems with June 2026 updates and with real-time protection on or off, and Microsoft has not credited the researcher.
Key Takeaway: The exploit was reported to work on up-to-date Windows machines with the June 2026 Patch Tuesday updates installed, so a fully patched estate was not a defense against a race condition that yields SYSTEM privileges. This is the fourth Defender flaw from the same researcher, after BlueHammer, UnDefend and RedSun, and Microsoft's fix relies on automatic engine updates rather than customer action.
Read the original at The Hacker News ↗
- Topics
- Vulnerabilities & Patching
- Mentions
- CVE-2026-33825CVE-2026-41091CVE-2026-45498CVE-2026-50656
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