TL;DR
- Microsoft’s October release is the largest in its history: 1,414 CVEs, 78 rated critical and 1329 rated important.
- Two of them are zero-days already exploited in the wild, and CISA added CVE-2026-96951 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog the same day the patches shipped.
- Patch the two Windows zero-days first (CVE-2026-108398 and CVE-2026-96951).
Microsoft shipped 1,329 CVEs this month. That’s a new record, beating September’s release (which, ironically, held the previous record). Volume aside, only two of the 1,329 were exploited before the fix existed. Those are the ones worth losing sleep over—think of them as the real tricks in a bag of treats.
Nobody is reading all 1,400 advisories (except maybe AI), so here’s the short list on where to start.
| CVE ID | Affects | Affected versions | CVSS | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Shell Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability | Multiple Windows 10 & 11 versions, and Windows Server 2012-2025 | 8.8 | Using special elements in a command injection, users can bypass a security feature over a network | |
| .NET Framework Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability elevation of privilege vulnerability | Windows 10 (multiple versions), and Windows Server 2012-2025 | 8.8 | Search path in .NET framework can allow an authorized attacker to bypass a security feature locall |
Patch Tuesday: October 13, 2026
Here are the CVEs we think deserve your attention first:
- Windows Shell Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability (CVE-2026-96951): A spooky CVE that could trick an unsuspected user via email or instant message attack scenario. The attacker could send the targeted user a specially crafted file that is designed to exploit the vulnerability and evade Mark of the Web (MOTW) defenses. Microsoft has confirmed exploitation in the wild, and CISA added it to the KEV catalog on 10/13/26.
- .NET Framework Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability (CVE-2026-108398): Attackers can simply manipulate an untrusted search path flaw in the .NET Framework. This flaw allows bypassing a Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) enforcement security feature via local access. Once in, attackers can run unauthorized applications on a targeted system.
Tracking AI CVEs
Back in August, we took a deep dive into the actual threat level AI CVEs provide, and with that came a table of AI-specific CVEs added to KEV. These are critical to track, because while AI is big in the headlines, the noise doesn’t always equate to risk. Since its original publication, two more have been added, and we’ll continue to update AI CVEs added to KEV with each Patch Tuesday.
| AI CVE identifier | Vendor product | CISA KEV entry date |
|---|---|---|
|
CVE-2025-3248 |
Langflow | May 5, 2025 |
|
CVE-2025-34291 |
Langflow | May 21, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-33017 |
Langflow | March 25, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-33634 |
Trivy (Aqua Security) | March 26, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-42208 |
LiteLLM | May 8, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-42271 |
LiteLLM | June 8, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-55255 |
Langflow | July 7, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-0770 |
Langflow | July 21, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-9198 |
Langflow | August 5, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-62593 |
Ray-Project | August 17, 2026 |
|
CVE-2026-64849 |
MLflow | August 19, 2026 |
|
(new) CVE-2026-59822 |
BerriAI LiteLLM | September 2, 2026 |
|
(new) CVE-2026-49869 |
Kestra OSS | September 2, 2026 |
That’s it for this month. Questions? Reach out to your Expel representative or contact us here.
