The upcoming Patch Tuesday is set for September 8th, 2026, marking another important date for organizations relying on Microsoft’s security updates.
Windows security updates
This month, Microsoft is addressing a staggering array of vulnerabilities—over 200—across its various Windows platforms, including Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server. While support for Windows 10 officially concluded in October 2025, those who are part of the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program will continue to receive critical updates until October 2027, ensuring a safety net for users still operating on this legacy system.
Among the vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-68820 stands out. This particular flaw resides in the Windows auxiliary function driver for Winsock, allowing potential attackers to gain elevated privileges. By cleverly combining this exploit with another remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, malicious actors could execute code with system-level permissions, underscoring the importance of timely updates.
Critical Windows vulnerabilities
In this round of updates, Microsoft has identified 18 vulnerabilities as critical, each presenting significant risks to system integrity. Notably, the RCE vulnerability CVE-2026-62878, found in the Windows DNS server, poses a serious threat. A successful exploit could lead to a buffer overflow, enabling attackers to run code with elevated privileges without any user interaction required.
Another critical issue is the use-after-free (UAF) vulnerability CVE-2026-62893, located in the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) server of Windows Deployment Services. This vulnerability can be exploited through UDP port 69, allowing for code injection and execution without user intervention. The root of this flaw lies in operations performed on an object without verifying its existence first.
Additionally, the RCE vulnerability CVE-2026-62815 within Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC) also allows for code execution without user interaction. Although it is classified as high risk rather than critical, it is accompanied by another RCE vulnerability, CVE-2026-59124. However, due to the fact that Microsoft’s High Performance Computing (HPC) Pack is not enabled by default, this particular vulnerability does not carry the same critical designation, despite its potential for exploitation.
