Microsoft Patch Tuesday Update September 2026 – 974 Vulnerabilities Fixed, Including 2 Zero-Days
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixes 974 vulnerabilities across Windows and Office, including two actively exploited Windows privilege-escalation zero-days.
Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday addresses 974 vulnerabilities spanning Windows, Office, SQL Server, SharePoint, Exchange, Azure, and developer tools. Two Windows zero-days are confirmed exploited in attacks: CVE-2026-85880, a Windows ALPC elevation-of-privilege flaw, and CVE-2026-81963, a Windows Update Stack privilege-escalation flaw involving link following. The release also includes Critical fixes for Windows Secure Kernel Mode, VBS Enclave, Excel, and Word.
New Passkey Attacks Can Recover Synced Private Keys or Bypass Phishing
Three research teams showed passkey bypasses: WebAuthn assertion replay in Microsoft Entra ID, synced-passkey key recovery in Google Password Manager, and Windows Hello key reuse.
SpecterOps' Pass-the-Passkey research showed Windows stored past YubiKey signatures in cleartext and chained this with Microsoft Entra ID passkey validation weaknesses to impersonate privileged users despite phishing-resistant MFA; the Windows Event Logging Service issue is tracked as CVE-2026-34348 (CVSS 6.5) and fixed in July 2026 updates. Unit 42's Golden Pass-ta-key attack recovered the 32-byte Security Domain Secret protecting Google Password Manager synced passkeys from Chrome on Windows via pre-existing malware. Dirk-jan Mollema showed in-session malware can use a hardware-bound Windows Hello for Business key without a fresh PIN or biometric check. Microsoft applied Entra-side mitigations for the relay assertion issue; no real-world exploitation has been reported.