ASUS Control Center Critical Flaw Allows Unauthenticated Attackers to Gain Root Access
ASUS patched CVE-2026-19397 (CVSS 7.7) in Control Center Express Agent, letting unauthenticated nearby attackers with an active session take over the host.
Missing Authentication in ASUS Control Center Express Agent Allows Host Takeover
CVE-2026-19397 is a missing-authentication flaw (CWE-306) in the ASUS Control Center Express (ACE) Agent, the endpoint component of ASUS's fleet-management software. An unauthenticated user on the adjacent network segment can make a direct connection to the agent and take control of the host, but only while the host has an active login session. Because no credentials are required, the attacker gains full control of the machine — the CVSS 4.0 base score of 7.7 (High) rates confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact on the vulnerable host as High, and related coverage describes unauthenticated attackers obtaining root-level access. Organizations running the ACE Agent on managed ASUS endpoints are affected, particularly where the agent is reachable from untrusted LAN segments. There is currently no public proof-of-concept, the flaw is not in CISA's KEV, EPSS is low (0.2% in 30 days), and ASUS has published a security update addressing it.
What to do: Update the ASUS Control Center Express Agent to the fixed release listed in ASUS's 'Security Update for ASUS Control Center Express Agent' advisory. Until patched, restrict access to the agent's listening interface so only trusted management segments can reach it, since any unauthenticated user on the same network segment can connect. Inventory managed ASUS endpoints for the ACE Agent and confirm whether those hosts are routinely used with active login sessions, as exploitation requires one.
| Product | Affected |
|---|---|
| ASUS Control Center Express Agent | — |
Order-of-magnitude estimate by the model from install counts, market share and public scan data it knows; verify before quoting.
Missing authentication for a critical function in ASUS Control Center Express Agent allows an unauthenticated nearby user to control the host via a direct connection to the agent when the host has an active login session. Refer to the ' Security Update for ASUS Control Center Express Agent ' section on the ASUS Security Advisory for more information.
ASUS patched CVE-2026-19397 (CVSS 7.7) in Control Center Express Agent, letting unauthenticated nearby attackers with an active session take over the host.
ZDI-26-657: ASUS Control Center Express Agent has an unauthenticated remote code execution flaw, CVE-2026-19397, rated CVSS 9.8.
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