What is CVE-2026-96940?
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Microsoft Exchange Outlook Web Access (OWA) fails to properly handle web requests. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could perform script/content injection attacks and attempt to trick the user into disclosing sensitive information. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker could send a specially crafted email message containing a malicious link to a user. Alternatively, an attacker could use a chat client to social engineer a user into clicking the malicious link. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Exchange validates web requests. Note: In order to exploit this vulnerability, a user must click a maliciously crafted link from an attacker.
The record classifies CVE-2026-96940 under weakness class CWE-1390. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 4 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 23 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 8.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:U/RL:O/RC:C - EPSS (FIRST)
- 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 40.6% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- Threadlinqs priority
- 8/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- Published
- 2026-10-02, last modified 2026-10-08
Is CVE-2026-96940 being exploited?
Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2026-96940 is publicly available. 1 public proof-of-concept repository is tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 51 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
- HORKimhab/CVE-2026-96940 (github)
Affected products and versions
- Microsoft: Exchange Server 2016 Cumulative Update 23, Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 14, Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update 15, Exchange Server Subscription Edition RTM
How to fix CVE-2026-96940
No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-96940 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-96940
2 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2026-96940, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on .