AL26-019 - Vulnerabilities impacting Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway - CVE-2026-19490 and CVE-2026-19489
Canadian Cyber Centre alerts on Citrix NetScaler ADC/Gateway flaws CVE-2026-19490 (authentication bypass) and CVE-2026-19489 (buffer overflow), urging emergency patching.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security issued alert AL26-019 covering two Citrix NetScaler vulnerabilities disclosed in a vendor advisory on August 19, 2026. CVE-2026-19490 (CWE-288) allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to bypass authentication on appliances configured as a Gateway for SSL VPN, ICA Proxy, CVPN, RDP Proxy, or as an AAA virtual server. CVE-2026-19489 (CWE-120) is a classic buffer overflow that may cause memory overflow, unpredictable behavior, or denial-of-service conditions. Affected appliances are vulnerable when configured as a SAML IdP; fixed versions include 14.1-73.32, 13.1-63.21, and 13.1-37.277 for FIPS.
CVE-2026-19490: Critical Vulnerability Affecting Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway
CVE-2026-19490 is a critical unauthenticated authentication bypass in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway, remotely exploitable without user interaction.
An advisory published August 19, 2026 describes CVE-2026-19490, a critical authentication bypass affecting Citrix NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway. The flaw carries a CVSS v4.0 base score of 9.3 and is remotely exploitable by unauthenticated attackers over the network without user interaction or elevated privileges. NetScaler ADC and Gateway are widely deployed enterprise products positioned at or near the network perimeter, providing load balancing, SSL/TLS offloading, and secure remote access. The text does not state whether exploitation has been observed in the wild.
Exploits in the Wild for Citrix ADC and Citrix Gateway Directory Traversal Vulnerability CVE-2019
Unit 42 confirmed in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2019-19781, a critical Citrix ADC/Gateway directory traversal flaw enabling unauthenticated file access and RCE.
CVE-2019-19781, a CVSS 9.8 directory traversal vulnerability, affects all supported versions of Citrix ADC and Citrix Gateway. Unit 42 captured multiple exploitation attempts in the wild and identified scanning activity from roughly 700 Shodan-exposed hosts. The flaw stems from improper pathname handling in Apache, allowing unauthenticated attackers to read sensitive files like smb.conf or achieve remote code execution via crafted XML. Palo Alto Networks released Threat Prevention signatures 57497 and 57570 on January 7, 2020, while Citrix published advisories CTX267027 and CTX267679 with responder policy mitigations pending a late-January patch.
Critical NetScaler Flaw Can Bypass Authentication on Certain Gateway and AAA Servers
Citrix patches critical NetScaler Gateway and AAA authentication bypass CVE-2026-19490 (CVSS 9.3) plus a SIP ALG memory overflow flaw; exploitation attempts observed.
Citrix fixed CVE-2026-19490 (CVSS 9.3), an authentication bypass affecting customer-managed NetScaler ADC and Gateway appliances configured as Gateway (SSL VPN, ICA Proxy, CVPN, RDP Proxy) or AAA virtual servers, and CVE-2026-19489 (CVSS 8.8), a memory overflow causing DoS when SIP ALG is enabled in Large Scale NAT groups. Updates are available in versions 14.1-73.32, 13.1-63.21, and corresponding FIPS/NDcPP builds, while Citrix-managed cloud services were already patched. The flaws were reported by Samarth Vashisht of JPMorgan Chase's penetration-testing team, and Previdian later observed 10 exploitation attempts against CVE-2026-19490 from six unique IP addresses in Australia, Germany, Japan, and the US, with no confirmed compromise.
CISA Adds Six Exploited Flaws to KEV, Including NetScaler, Linux, and SQL Server Bugs
CISA added six actively exploited flaws to KEV, led by Citrix NetScaler CVE-2026-8452, with federal patch deadlines set.
CISA added six flaws to the KEV catalog on August 27, 2026, citing evidence of active exploitation, led by CVE-2026-8452, an improper buffer restriction in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway that can cause denial-of-service. Defused Cyber and Previdian reported active exploitation of CVE-2026-8452, with 36 attempts over 12 days from 12 attacker IPs deploying web shells x.php and z.php. The other additions cover SQL Server RCE (CVE-2019-1068), Linux kernel out-of-bounds write (CVE-2022-0995), Red Hat ABRT and libuser privilege escalations (CVE-2015-5287, CVE-2015-3246), and AjaxPro deserialization RCE (CVE-2021-23758). FCEB agencies must patch CVE-2019-1068 and CVE-2026-8452 by August 29, 2026, and the rest by September 9, 2026.
August 2026 CVE Landscape
Insikt Group catalogs 73 high-impact August 2026 CVEs (43 Very Critical), including PaperCut, Zimbra, and Metabase flaws actively exploited or weaponized.
Recorded Future's Insikt Group identified 73 high-impact vulnerabilities in August 2026, 43 rated Very Critical, spanning 45 vendors with Microsoft accounting for roughly 11%. 31 vulnerabilities surfaced via CISA's KEV catalog, with others validated via open sources, vendor telemetry, and honeypot data. New Nuclei detection templates were released for CVE-2025-62593 (Ray), CVE-2026-72898 (Metabase), and CVE-2026-9198 (IBM Langflow). The report also highlights two AI-assisted operations: UAT-10147 exploited Zimbra, AjaxPro, Nacos, and Telerik servers before using DeepAudit and PentestGPT post-compromise, while a separate Chinese-speaking actor weaponized Hermes Agent and DeepSeek in a failed attempt.
U.S. CISA adds Red Hat, Linux Kernel, Ajax.NET Professional, Microsoft SQL Server, and Citrix NetScaler flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
CISA added six flaws, including actively exploited CVE-2026-8452 in Citrix NetScaler, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog with federal patch deadlines.
CISA added six vulnerabilities to its KEV catalog: CVE-2015-3246 and CVE-2015-5287 (Red Hat libuser race condition and ABRT privilege escalation), CVE-2019-1068 (Microsoft SQL Server RCE), CVE-2021-23758 (Ajax.NET Professional deserialization), CVE-2022-0995 (Linux Kernel out-of-bounds write) and CVE-2026-8452 (Citrix NetScaler ADC/Gateway memory buffer flaw). CVE-2026-8452 has been observed under active exploitation in the wild and can cause denial-of-service. Under BOD 22-01, federal civilian agencies must patch CVE-2019-1068 and CVE-2026-8452 by August 29, 2026, and the rest by September 9, 2026.