CVE-2026-76461
CRITICAL · 9.8 KEVConfirmed in-the-wild exploitation, KEV-listed same day as disclosure, urgent vendor patching, multi-region media coverage.
What: Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Email Gateway suffers a critical (CVSS 9.8) unauthenticated remote code execution flaw via malformed email parsing, allowing root command execution.
Why it matters: KEV-listed on 2026-09-14; Cisco confirmed active exploitation in the wild before disclosure. No workaround available; patches released same day. Global security orgs (JPCERT, CISA) flagged as high-risk. This is a zero-day with confirmed threat actor use.
Where it's seen: International media coverage (Japanese, Dutch, English), security digest aggregators, and vendor advisory citations across social platforms. Defenders are being urged to patch immediately.
RISK: CRITICAL — Active zero-day exploitation, root RCE, KEV-listed, no workaround, mass patching required.
Description
A vulnerability in the email parsing of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email Gateway could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on the underlying operating system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation in the email parsing logic. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted email message that contains malicious SQL statements through an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary SQL statements, leading to command execution with root privileges on the underlying operating system.
CVSS 3.1 breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High