Vulnerability report

Trusted Third Party Report Confirmed Confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-76461

Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability

Cisco Secure Email · 14.0.0-698

Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Trusted Third Party Report
EPSS
29.5%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-76461 is an unauthenticated Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability.

Have exploitation attempts been observed?

Yes. Exploitation attempts have been reported for this vulnerability. Previdian lists it as a known exploited vulnerability. Listed in CISA KEV. Also reported by third-party sources. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

Cisco Secure Email, including 14.0.0-698, 13.5.1-277, and 13.0.0-392.

What should we do?

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

Overview

Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability

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.

Cisco Affected
Cisco Secure Email
14.0.0-698 13.5.1-277 13.0.0-392 14.2.0-620 13.0.5-007 13.5.4-038 14.2.1-020 14.3.0-032 15.0.0-104 15.0.1-030 15.5.0-048 15.5.1-055 15.5.2-018 16.0.0-050 15.0.3-002 16.0.0-054 15.5.3-022 16.0.1-017 15.5.4-012 16.0.4-016 15.0.5-016 16.0.2-112 16.0.3-044
Published
14 Sep 2026
Exploitation Attempts Reported
14 Sep 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

edge cisa

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-76461
  • cisco-sa-esa-inj-2bLVGmhX sec.cloudapps.cisco.com · CVE Record https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurity...

Exploitation evidence

Evidence of exploitation attempts

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

Exploitation Attempts Observed in the Wild

Cisco PSIRT CSAF

Recorded 14 Sep 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation attempts.

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
Cisco PSIRT CSAF First 2026-09-14 16:00 UTC
Cisco Security Advisory 2026-09-14 16:19 UTC
CISA 2026-09-14 19:40 UTC
CVE 2026-09-14 19:50 UTC
The Hacker News 2026-09-15 06:11 UTC
CERT Polska 2026-09-15 11:16 UTC
Rapid7 2026-09-15 12:22 UTC
Qualys ThreatPROTECT 2026-09-15 13:37 UTC
Arctic Wolf 2026-09-15 19:12 UTC
SOCRadar 2026-09-16 13:57 UTC
TheRegister 2026-09-17 12:40 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

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

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 v3.1

9.8 Critical

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

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

EPSS

29.5%

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

Recent mention · Arctic Wolf

PHP2Shell Is a Wake-Up Call for Every Business Leader

AI is changing how vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited for defenders and attackers alike, and the practical effect is that the time organizations have between a flaw being found and a flaw being exploited keeps shrinking. Today, we have more known vulnerabilities than...

Read full advisory

All Mentions

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Cisco Secure Email Gateway Flaw Exploited in the Wild, Enables Root Command Execution

The Hacker News · 15 Sep 2026

Cisco has warned that a new critical vulnerability impacting AsyncOS Software for Cisco Secure Email Gateway has come under active exploitation in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-76461, carries a CVSS score of 9.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. It has been described as a case of insufficient validation in the email parsing logic that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker

Recent mention · Cisco Security Advisory

Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection Vulnerability

Cisco Security Advisory · 14 Sep 2026

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...

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation attempts

  1. 12:40 UTC

    KEV confirmed by TheRegister

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  2. 13:57 UTC

    KEV confirmed by SOCRadar

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  3. 19:12 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Arctic Wolf

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  4. 13:37 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Qualys ThreatPROTECT

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  5. 12:22 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Rapid7

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  6. 11:16 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CERT Polska

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  7. 06:11 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Hacker News

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  8. 19:50 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  9. 19:40 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  10. 16:19 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Cisco Security Advisory

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  11. 16:09 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  12. 16:00 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party report of exploitation attempts

  13. 12:02 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.

  • 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-2026-76461

Sample API response
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-76461",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.29543,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}