Micropatches released for Windows Power Dependency Coordinator Elevation of Privilege (CVE-2026-69459)
September 2026 Windows Updates brought a patch for CVE-2026-69459, a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Power Dependency Coordinator, allowing a non-admin local user on the computer to elevate themselves to Local System.
The vulnerability was found by two anonymous researchers who used it at the TyphoonPWN 2026 competition. Subsequently, SSD published a technical analysis of this issue, which allowed us to reproduce the issue and create patches for legacy Windows systems.
The Vulnerability
The vulnerability is a heap buffer overflow in the Component Resource Manager (CRM) state-monitor code of PsmServiceExtHost.dll. This module is loaded by Windows Power Dependency Coordinator running as Local System. A low-privileged local user can reach the vulnerable function through the documented power-settings API and overflow a fixed-size buffer, causing a memory corruption that can lead to arbitrary code execution.
Microsoft's Patch
Microsoft fixed this issue by adding a check to confirm that the length of a value provided by the caller exactly matches the expected length - and abandons the call if this fails.
Our Patch
Our patch is logically identical to Microsoft's.
Micropatch Availability
Micropatches were written for the following security-adopted Windows versions:
Windows 11 v22H2 - fully updated
Windows 11 v21H2 - fully updated
Windows 10 v22H2 - fully updated
Windows 10 v21H2 - fully updated
Windows 10 v21H1 - fully updated
Windows 10 v20H2 - fully updated
Windows 10 v2004 - fully updated
Windows 10 v1909 - fully updated
Windows 10 v1809 - fully updated
Windows 10 v1803 - fully updated
Micropatches have already been distributed to, and applied on, all affected online computers with 0patch Agent in PRO or Enterprise accounts (unless Enterprise group settings prevented that).
Vulnerabilities like these get discovered on a regular basis, and attackers know about them all. If you're using Windows that aren't receiving official security updates anymore, 0patch will make sure these vulnerabilities won't be exploited on your computers - and you won't even have to know or care about these things.
We'd like to thank SSD for sharing their technical analysis, which allowed us to create patches for Windows versions that are no longer receiving official updates from Microsoft.
If you're new to 0patch, create a free account in 0patch Central, start a free trial, then install and register 0patch Agent. Everything else will happen automatically. No computer reboot will be needed.
Did you know 0patch security-adopted Windows 10 and Office 2016 and 2019 when they went out of support in October 2025, allowing you to keep using them for at least 3 more years (5 years for Windows 10)? Read more about it here and here.
Note that we will soon security-adopt the following products:
Windows 10 22H2 with Extended Security Updates year 1: October 2026
Windows Server 2012 with Extended Security Updates year 3: October 2026
Windows Server 2012 R2 with Extended Security Updates year 3: October 2026
Microsoft Office 2021: October 2026
Windows 11 23H2 (E): November 2026
Windows Server 2016: January 2027
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