Vulnerability · Published Aug 5, 2026 · Assigned by NI

CVE-2026-18485Local Privilege Escalation in NI-PAL

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in NI-PAL from NI. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 6% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.0% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

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.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
NI	NI-PAL	0 – through 26.3.1

Weakness: CWE-1285 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

https://www.ni.com/en/support/security/available-critical-and-security-updates-for-ni-software/2026/local-privilege-escalation-in-ni-pal.html