---
id: CVE-2026-18485
title: "There is a local privilege escalation vulnerability recently discovered in the NI-PAL kernel driver.\_\_This may allow a local, authenticated user to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code.\_\_This vulnerability affects NI-PAL 26.3.1…"
summary: "There is a local privilege escalation vulnerability recently discovered in the NI-PAL kernel driver.\_\_This may allow a local, authenticated user to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code.\_\_This vulnerability affects NI-PAL 26.3.1…"
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-1285
published: '2026-08-05'
updated: '2026-08-28'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-18485'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://www.ni.com/en/support/security/available-critical-and-security-updates-for-ni-software/2026/local-privilege-escalation-in-ni-pal.html
    label: security@ni.com
tags:
  - nvd
epss: 0.00167
epssPercentile: 0.05286
ingestedAt: '2026-08-29T16:39:14.272Z'
---

## Overview

There is a local privilege escalation vulnerability recently discovered in the NI-PAL kernel driver.  This may allow a local, authenticated user to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code.  This vulnerability affects NI-PAL 26.3.1 and prior versions running on Microsoft Windows.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.