CVE-2026-21514

CVE-2026-21514 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Microsoft Office Word where the application makes security decisions based on untrusted inputs, allowing an authenticated local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the system. An attacker with user-level access can exploit this to execute code with higher permissions, potentially compromising the entire system. **Immediate actions:** Patch Microsoft Office Word as soon as Microsoft releases updates. Restrict local administrative access where possible, monitor for suspicious Word process behavior (especially spawned child processes with elevated tokens), and review access logs for users who have recently escalated privileges.