This seems to affect only paint 11.0.0.0 up to, but not including, 11.2605.91.0.
For folks like me, running a much older version, its probably safe, although its Windows so, I'm not too sure.
WHY ON HELL paint has a remote code execution in the name of God?
WHY? is this because someone who needs to build a CV decided to network something on ..... I can't come with a reason why "An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted packet to an affected service over the network." will cause paint to start being nice to an attacker and leaking crypto secrets etc.. the thing says sending a specially crafted packet.. this means windows is part of the attack vector, but that just makes the WHY bigger, really, why?
Tangential, but: "We're sorry but the CVE Website doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled."
Usually I just enable JS. But is this a security site, asking for remote code execution on my device? Before they can show me some text? They just disqualified themselves.
I'm just in full denial that paint runs a server. Happy to be corrected if someone has a windows machine handy to verify.
But From [0]:
> A total of 59 of the October CVEs fit my definition of wormable. Specifically, 57 contain both “An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted packet to an affected service over the network” and “No authentication or user interaction is required.”
Makes you wonder if MS is just copy-pasting boilerplate on CVEs and disclosed incorrectly the scope of the one in Paint because they had 56 other bugs to disclose.
So I'm not discounting reporting human error here, yet.
> The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet.
The way I read it is MSPaint is now running as a service and listens to a port (while running? all the time?) and you can trigger remote execute by sending data. Just.. Why?..
At this point I want to declare that air-gapped network with the transfer only over USB drives is a viable and valuable method of handling IT security. Outside transfer only happens by people manually copying text onto a floppy and reading it from a floppy.
I love Microsoft! Who else might look at a fully offline drawing app and think: "Man this needs the most severe level of networking access capable of remote code execution", and that surely is to put their useless Copilot to absolutely nowhere. Next headline will be "All user credentials stolen from Notepad"
MS Paint Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
(cve.org)694 points by kuberwastaken 5 November 2026 | 267 comments
Comments
We seriously need more information.
UI:N it is with no interaction ?
is it a cve mistake ?
"No User Interaction"
Does that mean that paint doesnt have to be running?
Application being installed on a PC allows a specially crafted packet to arbitrarily execute code?
>Unproven
>Remediation Level
>Official Fix
>Report Confidence
>Confirmed
I really like these secondary scoring factors, not just scoring the vuln itself, but how it's being attacked.
https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-20...
Usually I just enable JS. But is this a security site, asking for remote code execution on my device? Before they can show me some text? They just disqualified themselves.
But From [0]: > A total of 59 of the October CVEs fit my definition of wormable. Specifically, 57 contain both “An unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a specially crafted packet to an affected service over the network” and “No authentication or user interaction is required.”
Makes you wonder if MS is just copy-pasting boilerplate on CVEs and disclosed incorrectly the scope of the one in Paint because they had 56 other bugs to disclose.
So I'm not discounting reporting human error here, yet.
[0] https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2026/10/13/the-octobe...
But remote? How
States:
> Attack Vector: Network
> The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet.
The way I read it is MSPaint is now running as a service and listens to a port (while running? all the time?) and you can trigger remote execute by sending data. Just.. Why?..
I just... It's just ridiculous at this point.
Each time I learn something new about Microslop, I'm just glad I'm not a tenant.
This is absurd.