HighVulnerabilityLLM-specific

CVE-2026-44470: Claude Desktop for Windows local privilege escalation via directory junction

Source: NVD(opens in a new tab)
Identifier: CVE-2026-44470
Published: May 13, 2026
Record updated: October 9, 2026

Known exploitation: Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog at the last check.
EPSS: 0.2%

Summary

CVE-2026-44470 affects the Claude Desktop app for Windows before 1.3834.0. Its CoworkVMService component runs as SYSTEM and does not check whether the VM bundle directory is a real directory or an NTFS directory junction before creating files in it. A local non-elevated user can replace that user-writable directory with a junction pointing to an attacker-chosen location, causing the service to create a SYSTEM-owned file in an arbitrary directory, which can be used for local privilege escalation.

Mitigation

Fixed in 1.3834.0.

Details

Scores and exploitation

EPSS: 0.2%Estimated probability that this CVE is exploited in the next 30 days, from the FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System. Read on October 13, 2026.
Disclosure date: May 13, 2026

Weaknesses and techniques

Weakness (CWE): CWE-59
CWE-269
Attack pattern (CAPEC): CAPEC-122

Classification

Attack sophistication: Moderate
AI component targeted: API
Impact: Confidentiality,
Integrity
Labels: security

How this record was produced

Summaries, mitigations and labels on this page are generated automatically from the source. The linked source is authoritative. The source gives this advisory a description and no title, so the title above is a headline generated from the source text.

Original source: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44470

First tracked: May 13, 2026 at 08:10 PM ET, from NVD/CVE Database

Classifier: claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v4

Classifier confidence: 80% (self-assessed)