Skip to main content

Cisco Secure Email EUVDEUVD-2026-77623

| CVE-2026-76443 CRITICAL
Improper Neutralization (CWE-707)
2026-09-14 cisco GHSA-7r4m-5539-57x5
9.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: cisco
View

Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Reach exposed ESA/SMA interface
  2. Exploit
    Send crafted un-neutralized input
  3. Execution
    Trigger injection/improper neutralization
  4. Impact
    Disclose data or impact appliance

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Improper neutralization
Exploitation Conditions

Prerequisites cannot be precisely determined because Cisco's advisory (cisco-sa-hardening-esa-dfCrfXkm) provides no technical detail - no affected feature, endpoint, protocol, or configuration setting is named, and it is not stated whether authentication is required. What is known: the target must be a Cisco Secure Email Gateway or Secure Email and Web Manager running an affected build (12.8.x through 16.x), and the flaw is an improper-neutralization/injection-class issue (CWE-707). The CVSS vector claims PR:N (unauthenticated) and AC:L, but with no corroborating detail this claim is unverified; management interfaces of these appliances are typically restricted to administrators, so real exploitation may require authenticated or network-adjacent access to the management plane. Defenders should treat exposed management interfaces as the primary attack surface and restrict them pending Cisco specifics.

Impact

This CVE carries a maximal CVSS 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/C:H/I:H/A:H), but that score is almost entirely unsupported by evidence and should be treated with skepticism. The description is a boilerplate Cisco 'internal security review / software hardening' notice tracked under the CWE-707 (Improper Neutralization) Pillar with ZERO concrete technical detail - no affected endpoint, no injectable parameter, no statement of whether authentication is required. Cross-referencing the exploitation signals tells a much calmer story: EPSS is only 0.37% (30th percentile), SSVC lists Exploitation as 'none' (no observed or public exploitation), there is no CISA KEV listing, and no public POC. SSVC does mark Automatable:yes and Technical Impact:total, which is why remediation still matters, but 'none/yes/total' describes theoretical rather than active risk. There is also an internal contradiction: the record is tagged 'Information Disclosure' (a read-only, confidentiality outcome) while the CVSS vector claims full C:H/I:H/A:H - these cannot both be fully accurate, and the vendor-self-assigned 9.8 with no substantiating detail is likely inflated. Net: this is a high-CVSS-but-currently-low-real-risk item - a should-patch on an internet-exposed security appliance, not a drop-everything emergency, until Cisco publishes specifics.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A remote attacker sends crafted input to an exposed interface of a Cisco Secure Email Gateway or Secure Email and Web Manager that fails to properly neutralize it (CWE-707 injection-class), causing the appliance to disclose data or process attacker-controlled content. Because SSVC rates the flaw Automatable:yes, exploitation could be scripted at scale if details emerge, but Exploitation is currently 'none' and no public exploit code exists at time of analysis.

Emergency Immediate action required. Why: CRITICAL + active threat signals, no patch available.
No patch listed yet 0.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.

Alert me

AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 16, 2026

Improper-neutralization flaws (CWE-707) in Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager - disclosed by Cisco as an internally discovered hardening release covering affected 12.8.x through 16.x builds - could allow an attacker to compromise confidentiality or integrity of the appliances, but the published CVSS 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/C:H/I:H/A:H) is unsupported by any of the technical detail Cisco actually provides. The advisory cisco-sa-hardening-esa-dfCrfXkm names no vulnerable feature, endpoint, protocol, or configuration setting and does not state whether authentication is required, so the unauthenticated PR:N claim is unverified; our assessment lowers the vector to CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N and treats exposed management interfaces as the most plausible attack surface. There is no public exploit code and no evidence of exploitation (CISA SSVC Exploitation: none), and EPSS is low at 0.37% (30th percentile), so this should be handled as a routine patch-cadence item rather than an emergency pre-auth remote compromise.

RemediationAI

Cisco's hardening release addresses these issues, so remediation is to upgrade to a fixed build - patch available per vendor advisory, but the provided data does not enumerate exact fixed version numbers, so consult cisco-sa-hardening-esa-dfCrfXkm (https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-hardening-esa-dfCrfXkm) and apply the fixed release for your train (12.8.x, 13.x, 14.x, 15.x or 16.x), confirming afterwards that the installed build no longer appears in the affected list. Because the advisory names no vulnerable feature, there is no documented configuration workaround; the most useful compensating control is to restrict management-plane access - block the appliance's administrative web/GUI and CLI ports from untrusted networks at the firewall or with ACLs, place management on a dedicated administrative VLAN, and require VPN or jump-host access for administrators. The trade-off is loss of direct or remote administrative convenience and possible breakage of automated management integrations, but it directly reduces the most plausible exploitation path should the unverified PR:N rating prove accurate. Continue monitoring the Cisco advisory and ENISA EUVD-2026-77623 for additional technical detail; no public exploit identified at time of analysis and EPSS is only 0.37%, so out-of-band emergency action is not warranted.

Affected VersionsENISA

Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.5.1-024
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.0.1-035
Cisco Secure Email 15.0.3-002
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 16.0.4-010
Cisco Secure Email 15.5.2-018
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.5.1-029
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 16.0.3-016
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.8.1-108
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.8.1-052
Cisco Secure Email 13.0.0-392
Cisco Secure Email 15.5.3-022
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.5.2-005
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.0.0-334
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.3.0-120
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.0.0-404
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.8.1-021
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.8.1-068
Cisco Secure Email 14.2.1-020
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.2.0-224
Cisco Secure Email 16.0.0-050
Cisco Secure Email 16.0.3-044
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.5.3-017
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.2.0-203
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 16.0.1-010
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 12.8.1-002
Cisco Secure Email 15.0.0-104
Cisco Secure Email 15.5.0-048
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.5.4-007
Cisco Secure Email 14.2.0-620
Cisco Secure Email 13.5.1-277
Cisco Secure Email 15.0.1-030
Cisco Secure Email 16.0.1-017
Cisco Secure Email 14.3.0-032
Cisco Secure Email 15.5.1-055
Cisco Secure Email 16.0.4-016
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.6.1-201
Cisco Secure Email 15.0.5-016
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 15.0.2-007
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.8.1-074
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.6.2-023
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 16.0.2-088
Cisco Secure Email 13.0.5-007
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 16.0.0-195
Cisco Secure Email 16.0.0-054
Cisco Secure Email 14.0.0-698
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.2.0-212
Cisco Secure Email 13.5.4-038
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.0.0-249
Cisco Secure Email 15.5.4-012
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 14.1.0-227
Cisco Secure Email 16.0.2-112
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.0.0-277
Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager 13.6.2-078

Affected Packages

euvd cisco_secure_email no fix
euvd cisco_secure_email_and_web_manager no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 2 packages in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

CWE-707 is a CWE Pillar ('Improper Neutralization'), not a leaf weakness - it is the parent of injection-class weaknesses such as OS command injection, SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and header/CRLF injection, so this CVE does not describe one identifiable root cause but a bundle of internally found neutralization failures that Cisco fixed together in a hardening release. Because a pillar-level assignment gives no sink, parser, or interpreter to reason about, no reliable exploitation narrative can be constructed: the affected feature could be anything from a web-UI query handler to an email header or message parser. The CPE entries (cpe:2.3:a:cisco:cisco_secure_email:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* and cpe:2.3:a:cisco:cisco_secure_email_and_web_manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) are version-wildcarded, so CPE matching alone cannot determine whether a given appliance is vulnerable; ENISA's EUVD record (EUVD-2026-77623) instead enumerates roughly fifty specific builds across the 12.8.x, 13.x, 14.x, 15.x and 16.x trains for both products and is the more useful affected-version source. CISA's SSVC decision data rates the issue Automatable: yes and Technical Impact: total, which reflects worst-case potential rather than demonstrated behavior, while Exploitation is 'none'. Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Secure Email and Web Manager are on-premises email security appliances whose web management planes are normally reachable only by administrators, which is why the unauthenticated PR:N rating in the published vector is questionable.

Know when Cisco Secure Email gets its next vulnerability

  • Watch products and get an email when something new is published
  • Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

No credit card · 7-day full trial

Severity by source

Vendor (cisco) PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 7.1 HIGH

Improper-neutralization flaw on a management-oriented appliance likely needs some access (PR:L) and the 'Information Disclosure' tag points to confidentiality-dominant impact (C:H/I:L/A:N); low confidence given zero technical detail.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (cisco).

CVSS VectorVendor: cisco

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities.

The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-76443 are related to issues with improper neutralization that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-707.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager releases 12.8.x through 16.x are affected by a critical-severity improper-neutralization issue that could compromise the confidentiality or integrity of these email security appliances. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and no exploitation has been observed, but no vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis leaves organizations dependent on interim controls. Leadership should care because these appliances are central to email security and regulatory compliance, and exposed management interfaces are the most plausible attack surface per our assessment.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

Restrict management interface access to trusted administrative networks via ACLs and firewall rules; enforce multi-factor authentication and least privilege for administrative accounts; segment affected appliances from untrusted networks; enable detailed logging and monitor for anomalous administrative activity; consult Cisco advisory cisco-sa-hardening-esa-dfCrfXkm for updated guidance.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.4%
Top 70% exploitable
Prevalence
High
widely deployed enterprise email security appliances across many organizations
Exploit
POC
Public exploit code exists
Social Media
2
Sightings
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC Yes
EPSS 0.4%
Patch available No
Active threat Yes
Deciding rule
CRITICAL + active threat signals, no patch available
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
Yes
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

84
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +49
PoC: +20
Weaponized: +15
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

This site uses cookies essential for authentication and security. No tracking or analytics cookies are used. Privacy Policy