Cisco Warns of Ongoing Exploitation of Critical Email Gateway Zero-Day
Cisco Secure Email Gateway zero-day CVE-2026-76461 (CVSS 9.8) is actively exploited for root command execution; CISA added it to KEV.
Cisco disclosed critical zero-day CVE-2026-76461 (CVSS 9.8) in Secure Email Gateway, remotely exploitable without authentication via crafted emails containing malicious SQL statements, leading to arbitrary command execution with root privileges. The flaw affects physical and virtual appliances regardless of configuration and has no workarounds. Cisco PSIRT confirmed active exploitation, and CISA added the CVE to its KEV catalog on September 14 with a federal remediation deadline of September 17. Admins should review mail_logs for suspicious SQL statements such as 'COPY.*TO PROGRAM'.
- Unauthenticated remote attacker gains root command execution via crafted emails with malicious SQL statements.
- Affects all Cisco Secure Email Gateway appliances, physical and virtual; no workarounds exist.
- CISA added CVE-2026-76461 to KEV September 14; federal agencies must remediate by September 17.
- Detection: grep mail_logs on each cluster device for 'COPY.*TO PROGRAM' entries.
- CVEs
- CVE-2026-76461
Vulnerabilities mentioned
All| CVE | Vulnerability | CVSS | EPSS | Signals | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-76461 | Unauthenticated SQL Injection to Root RCE in Cisco Secure Email Gateway | 9.8 | 30% | KEVPoC ×3 | KEV |
From the original article
2 min read at securityaffairs.com
Cisco warns of a critical zero-day in Secure Email Gateway, exploited in the wild to gain root access through malicious emails. Cisco disclosed a critical zero-day, tracked as CVE-2026-76461 (CVSS score of 9. 8), affecting Secure Email Gateway appliances.
By Pierluigi Paganini · securityaffairs.com
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