CVE-2026-57973: CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2)
Time-of-check time-of-use (toctou) race condition in Windows Subsystem for Linux allows an authorized attacker to perform tampering locally.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability involves a TOCTOU race condition in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2), where an attacker with local authorized access can exploit the timing gap between resource checking and usage to perform tampering. The flaw is identified as CWE-367 and affects version 5.0.0.0 of WSL2. Microsoft has published an official fix to address this issue.
Potential Impact
An authorized local attacker can exploit this race condition to tamper with system resources or data within WSL2, potentially leading to unauthorized modification or corruption of information. The vulnerability does not allow remote exploitation and requires local access with low privileges but high attack complexity.
Mitigation Recommendations
An official fix is available from Microsoft. Users and administrators should apply the vendor-provided patch as detailed in the Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-57973 to remediate this vulnerability.
CVE-2026-57973: CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition in Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2)
Description
Time-of-check time-of-use (toctou) race condition in Windows Subsystem for Linux allows an authorized attacker to perform tampering locally.
CVSS v3.1
Score 6.3medium
Affected software
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability involves a TOCTOU race condition in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2), where an attacker with local authorized access can exploit the timing gap between resource checking and usage to perform tampering. The flaw is identified as CWE-367 and affects version 5.0.0.0 of WSL2. Microsoft has published an official fix to address this issue.
Potential Impact
An authorized local attacker can exploit this race condition to tamper with system resources or data within WSL2, potentially leading to unauthorized modification or corruption of information. The vulnerability does not allow remote exploitation and requires local access with low privileges but high attack complexity.
Mitigation Recommendations
An official fix is available from Microsoft. Users and administrators should apply the vendor-provided patch as detailed in the Microsoft Security Response Center advisory at https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-57973 to remediate this vulnerability.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- microsoft
- Date Reserved
- 2026-06-26T17:45:44.853Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- official-fix
- Vendor Advisory Urls
- [{"url":"https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-57973","vendor":"Microsoft"}]
Threat ID: 6a5676bf68715ace43f0b087
Added to database: 07/14/2026, 17:49:51 UTC
Last enriched: 08/13/2026, 15:57:07 UTC
Last updated: 08/28/2026, 22:52:12 UTC
Views: 102
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