Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-18556

Unauthenticated administrative account takeover

N-able / N-central · 0 to <= 2026.1

Watch CVE-2026-18556 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 8.2 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
7.9%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-18556 is an unauthenticated Unauthenticated administrative account takeover affecting N-able N-central. Authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerability in N-able N-central allows...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

N-able / N-central 0 to <= 2026.1.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerability in N-able N-central allows Authentication Bypass

Authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerability in N-able N-central allows Authentication Bypass.

This issue affects N-central: through 2026.1.

N-able Affected
N-central
Through 2026.1
Published
01 Aug 2026
Exploitation Reported
01 Aug 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-18556
  • uptime.n-able.com uptime.n-able.com · CVE Record https://uptime.n-able.com/

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

Previdian

Recorded 01 Aug 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
Previdian First 2026-08-01 13:51 UTC
The Hacker News 2026-08-04 07:00 UTC
Rapid7 2026-08-04 11:11 UTC
CISA 2026-08-04 16:45 UTC
CVE 2026-08-04 18:20 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Scanner coverage

No scanner integrations recorded yet.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.

Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v4.0

8.2 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

EPSS

7.9%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel CWE-288

Recent mention · RecordedFuture

August 2026 CVE Landscape

In August 2026, Insikt Group® identified 73 high-impact vulnerabilities that should be prioritized for remediation, 43 of which had a Very Critical Recorded Future Risk Score. This represents a 14% decrease from last month.

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v4.0 8.2 High

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS v3.1 7.4 High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

All Mentions

Recent mention · RecordedFuture

August 2026 CVE Landscape

RecordedFuture · 08 Sep 2026

In August 2026, Insikt Group® identified 73 high-impact vulnerabilities that should be prioritized for remediation, 43 of which had a Very Critical Recorded Future Risk Score. This represents a 14% decrease from last month.

Recent mention · Rapid7

CVE-2026-18577: N-able N-central Authentication Bypass Exploited in the Wild

Rapid7 · 04 Aug 2026

OverviewOn August 2, 2026, N-able published a security advisory for CVE-2026-18577, an authentication bypass vulnerability affecting N-central that was discovered being exploited in-the-wild after an incomplete fix for an earlier authentication bypass issue, CVE-2026-18556 was disclosed. CVE-2026-18577 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to bypass authentication and obtain administrative control of vulnerable N-central servers in affected deployments.N-able N-central is a widely deployed Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) platform used by managed service providers (MSPs) and...

Recent mention · The Hacker News

CISA Adds Exploited N-able N-central Flaw to KEV After Customer Compromises

The Hacker News · 04 Aug 2026

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Monday added a high-severity security flaw impacting N-able N-central to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog following reports of active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-18577 (CVSS score: 8.2), is a case of incomplete patching for CVE-2026-18556 (CVSS score: 8.2) that allows

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 18:20 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. 16:45 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 11:11 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Rapid7

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  4. 07:00 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Hacker News

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  5. 19:59 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  6. 13:51 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  7. 11:54 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2026-18556

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-18556",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 8.2,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.07882,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}