Vulnerability report

Trusted Third Party Report Confirmed Confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2026-87886

Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM Privilege Escalation

Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM · affected before 1.9.3.1021

Watch CVE-2026-87886 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.8 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Trusted Third Party Report
EPSS
0.2%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-87886 is a vulnerability affecting Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM and 2 other products. Local privilege escalation due to insecure file permissions.

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?

Affected products include Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM and 2 other products, including affected before 1.9.3.1021, affected before 1.8.11.638, and affected before 1.2.3.238.

What should we do?

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

Overview

Local privilege escalation due to insecure file permissions

Local privilege escalation due to insecure file permissions.

The following products are affected: Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM (Linux) before build 1.9.3.1021, Acronis Backup extension for Plesk (Linux) before build 1.8.11.638, Acronis Backup plugin for DirectAdmin (Linux) before build 1.2.3.238.

Acronis Affected
Acronis Backup plugin for cPanel & WHM
Before 1.9.3.1021
Acronis Affected
Acronis Backup extension for Plesk
Before 1.8.11.638
Acronis Affected
Acronis Backup plugin for DirectAdmin
Before 1.2.3.238
View vendor advisory (opens in new tab)
Published
17 Sep 2026
Exploitation Attempts Reported
15 Sep 2026
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

linux cisa

CVE References

  • CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-87886
  • SEC-10986 security-advisory.acronis.com · Vendor Advisory https://security-advisory.acronis.com/advisories/SEC-10986

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

Acronis

Recorded 15 Sep 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation attempts.

Proof of concept available

CVE

Recorded 18 Sep 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

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
Acronis First 2026-09-15 21:57 UTC
The Hacker News 2026-09-16 11:08 UTC
CISA 2026-09-16 19:20 UTC
CVE 2026-09-18 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

7.8 High

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

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

EPSS

0.2%

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

Weaknesses

Incorrect Default Permissions CWE-276

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Acronis cPanel Backup Plugin Vulnerability Exploited in Targeted Attacks

Acronis has warned that a high-severity security flaw in its Backup plugin for cPanel and Web Host Manager (WHM) deployments has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-87886 (CVSS score: 7.8), is described as a case of local privilege escalation...

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 7.8 High

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

CVSS v3.0 7.8 High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

CVE Record exploit — cisa.gov

cve · Created Unknown

CVE Record exploit — cisa.gov

cve · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation attempts

  1. 12:40 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. 12:40 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  3. 22:57 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 19:20 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  5. 11:08 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Hacker News

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  6. 21:57 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party report of exploitation attempts

  7. 14:04 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-2026-87886

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-87886",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.00233,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}