Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

A vulnerability in Microsoft Defender related to improper link resolution before file access, known as 'link following', allows an authorized attacker to locally elevate privileges. This issue affects the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine versions prior to 1.1.26040.8.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to gain SYSTEM privileges.

Remediation

Users can update to the latest version of the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine to address this vulnerability. For enterprise deployments, it's recommended to verify that the automatic deployment of Microsoft Malware Protection Engine updates is functioning as expected.