CVE-2026-56178: CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Microsoft Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Mac
Time-of-check time-of-use (toctou) race condition in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability involves a TOCTOU race condition in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Mac, which can be exploited by an authorized local attacker to elevate their privileges. The flaw arises from a timing issue between checking a condition and using the result, potentially allowing unauthorized actions. Microsoft has published an official fix to remediate this vulnerability.
Potential Impact
An authorized local attacker can exploit this TOCTOU race condition to elevate their privileges on the affected system. There is no impact on confidentiality or availability, but integrity is impacted due to the privilege escalation. No known exploits are reported in the wild.
Mitigation Recommendations
An official fix is available from Microsoft. Users and administrators should apply the vendor's patch as soon as possible to remediate this vulnerability. Refer to the Microsoft advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-56178 for detailed update instructions.
CVE-2026-56178: CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Microsoft Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Mac
Description
Time-of-check time-of-use (toctou) race condition in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint allows an authorized attacker to elevate privileges locally.
CVSS v3.1
Score 5.5medium
Affected software
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability involves a TOCTOU race condition in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for Mac, which can be exploited by an authorized local attacker to elevate their privileges. The flaw arises from a timing issue between checking a condition and using the result, potentially allowing unauthorized actions. Microsoft has published an official fix to remediate this vulnerability.
Potential Impact
An authorized local attacker can exploit this TOCTOU race condition to elevate their privileges on the affected system. There is no impact on confidentiality or availability, but integrity is impacted due to the privilege escalation. No known exploits are reported in the wild.
Mitigation Recommendations
An official fix is available from Microsoft. Users and administrators should apply the vendor's patch as soon as possible to remediate this vulnerability. Refer to the Microsoft advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-56178 for detailed update instructions.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- microsoft
- Date Reserved
- 2026-06-19T13:53:31.990Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- official-fix
- Vendor Advisory Urls
- [{"url":"https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-56178","vendor":"Microsoft"}]
Threat ID: 6a5676b968715ace43f0ae39
Added to database: 07/14/2026, 17:49:45 UTC
Last enriched: 08/13/2026, 15:47:00 UTC
Last updated: 08/25/2026, 22:52:12 UTC
Views: 72
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