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🚨 Researchers Use AI to Aid Discovery! Critical SharePoint Vulnerability Found, Hackers Can Impersonate Admin Without Password
Security researchers have discovered a critical vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint (CVE-2026-55040) that allows hackers to impersonate an Admin and execute remote code without authentication, with AI assisting in the discovery.
📌 Key Highlights:
- A critical vulnerability, CVE-2026-55040, was found in Microsoft SharePoint Server, rated Critical (CVSS 9.1).
- Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to impersonate any user in the system, including the Administrator, without needing valid user credentials.
- This discovery is particularly notable because the research team utilized an AI Agent to assist in analyzing and finding vulnerabilities in complex source code.
A team of cybersecurity researchers has disclosed the discovery of a critical vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint Server, which allows attackers to gain full control over the server. This vulnerability is tracked under the identifier CVE-2026-55040 and has received a high severity score of 9.1 (Critical) as it enables unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE).
The most concerning impact of this vulnerability is that attackers can craft special requests to trick the SharePoint server into believing they are any user in the system, whether a regular user or even an Administrator account with the highest privileges. This means hackers can freely access, modify, or delete sensitive data, as well as install malware on the server.
🤖 A New Dimension in AI-Assisted Research
Behind this remarkable discovery is the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology into the research process. Researchers developed an AI Agent to analyze SharePoint's immensely complex source code. The AI accurately identified problematic code sections related to data handling (deserialization), a task that would require significant time and resources if performed solely by humans. This stands as another example demonstrating AI's growing importance in cybersecurity, both for defenders and attackers.
🎯 Affected Products
The CVE-2026-55040 vulnerability affects multiple versions of SharePoint Server, including:
- SharePoint Server Subscription Edition
- SharePoint Server 2019
- SharePoint Server 2016
System administrators using the affected SharePoint Server versions should closely monitor security announcements from Microsoft to prepare for patch updates as soon as possible.
💬 How do you think AI's role in cyberattacks will grow in the future? Or will it become a crucial tool for defense? Share your thoughts!