
Public PoC Unleashes Windows 'MiniPlasma' Privilege-Escalation to SYSTEM
A publicly released PoC for the Windows 'MiniPlasma' zero-day privilege-escalation flaw lets unprivileged users gain SYSTEM privileges by exploiting the Cloud Filter driver’s HsmOsBlockPlaceholderAccess race condition and writing to the .DEFAULT hive. The bug traces to CVE-2020-17103 (originally patched in 2020 by Microsoft) but the PoC shows the flaw remains exploitable; Nightmare-Eclipse released the exploit on GitHub on May 13, 2026, after May Patch Tuesday, increasing risk as weaponized code circulates and affects all Windows versions. Organizations should monitor Microsoft’s response and apply patches when available.
