Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-86060

RouterOS SSH session privilege manipulation Privilege Escalation

Mikrotik / RouterOS · affected before 7.24.2

Watch CVE-2026-86060 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.2 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
6.4%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-86060 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Mikrotik RouterOS. RouterOS contains an argument-handling flaw in the SSH login path involving usernames that begin with a prohibited character, allowing...

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?

Mikrotik / RouterOS affected before 7.24.2.

What should we do?

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

Overview

RouterOS SSH session privilege manipulation Privilege Escalation

RouterOS contains an argument-handling flaw in the SSH login path involving usernames that begin with a prohibited character, allowing for the trusted RouterOS policy mask to be changed, leading to privilege escalation.

Exploitation requires an unauthenticated SSH session to reach the RouterOS login helper.This issue was fixed in versions: 6.49.21 (Long-term), 7.23.4 (Long-term) and 7.24.2 (Stable)

Mikrotik Affected
RouterOS
Before 7.24.2 Before 7.23.4 Before 6.49.21
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
05 Sep 2026
Exploitation Reported
10 Sep 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

edge cisa

CVE References

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

CERT Polska

Recorded 10 Sep 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
CERT Polska First 2026-09-10 16:26 UTC
CISA 2026-09-10 19:50 UTC
CVE 2026-09-10 20:01 UTC
The Hacker News 2026-09-23 16:31 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

9.2 Critical

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

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

EPSS

6.4%

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

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection') CWE-88

Recent mention · The Hacker News

SharePoint RCE and MikroTik RouterOS Flaws Actively Exploited in the Wild

Ravie LakshmananSep 26, 2026Vulnerability / Network Security The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added two security flaws impacting Microsoft SharePoint and Mikrotik RouterOS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing...

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v4.0 9.2 Critical

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

CVSS v3.1 9.8 Critical

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

All Mentions

Recent mention · The Hacker News

SharePoint RCE and MikroTik RouterOS Flaws Actively Exploited in the Wild

The Hacker News · 26 Sep 2026

Ravie LakshmananSep 26, 2026Vulnerability / Network Security The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Friday added two security flaws impacting Microsoft SharePoint and Mikrotik RouterOS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerabilities in question are as follows - CVE-2026-65660 (CVSS score: 8.8) - A code injection vulnerability in Microsoft Office SharePoint that allows an authorized attacker to execute code over a network. CVE-2026-67279 (CVSS score: 6.9) - An improper enforcement of behavioral...

Recent mention · Security Affairs

AI Helps Uncover MikroTrick Attack Chain in MikroTik RouterOS

Security Affairs · 24 Sep 2026

MikroTrick chains two RouterOS flaws to bypass authentication and gain admin access. AI helped researchers uncover the attack chain within days. MikroTik pushed out patches on September 3, 2026 for several RouterOS issues at once, calling it an important security update without saying what it actually fixed. That silence was deliberate, and it didn’t last […]

Recent mention · ExploitDB

[remote] MikroTrick, 7.24, 7.24.2, 7.0.0, 7.23.4, 6.0.0, 6.49.21 - RCE

ExploitDB · 24 Sep 2026

MikroTrick, 7.24, 7.24.2, 7.0.0, 7.23.4, 6.0.0, 6.49.21 - RCE

Recent mention · The Hacker News

MikroTrick Chain Let Attackers Take Over MikroTik Routers Without a Password or SSH Key

The Hacker News · 23 Sep 2026

Swati KhandelwalSep 23, 2026Vulnerability / Network Security Two MikroTik RouterOS SSH vulnerabilities chained together let attackers take full administrative control of Internet-exposed routers without a password, SSH key, or completed authentication. The chain, which CERT Polska calls MikroTrick, combines an SSH state-machine flaw (CVE-2026-67279) with an argument-injection bug in the RouterOS login process (CVE-2026-86060). Attack logs date to at least September 2, one day before MikroTik shipped patches in RouterOS 6.49.21, 7.23.4, and 7.24.2. As previously reported, CERT Polska...

Recent mention · CERT Polska EN

MikroTrick: technical analysis, disclosure process, and the use of LLM agents

CERT Polska EN · 22 Sep 2026

We describe the technical details of the MikroTrick chain, which combines the CVE-2026-67279 and CVE-2026-86060 vulnerabilities and, when chained, allowed full takeover of a device without authentication. We explain the mechanics of the attacks observed in the wild, the coordinated disclosure of both vulnerabilities, and the practical role of LLM agents in the RouterOS research.

Recent mention · CERT Polska EN

Vulnerabilities in Mikrotik RouterOS software

CERT Polska EN · 05 Sep 2026

CERT Polska has found 6 vulnerabilities (from CVE-2026-67276 to CVE-2026-67279, CVE-2026-67281 and CVE-2026-86060) in Mikrotik RouterOS software.

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 16:31 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Hacker News

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. 20:01 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  3. 19:50 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  4. 16:26 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  5. 20:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  6. 19:32 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-2026-86060

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-86060",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.2,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.06392,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}