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Active Exploitation of Critical N-central Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Exploitation of CVE-2026-18577 could allow an attacker to bypass authentication and lead to administrative account takeover

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Summary

Exploitation of CVE-2026-18577 could allow an attacker to bypass authentication and lead to administrative account takeover


Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Threat details

Exploitation of CVE-2026-18577

N-able has observed exploitation of CVE-2026-18577, leading to account takeover and full administrative access to the N-central server.

The NHS England National CSOC assesses further exploitation as likely.


Introduction

N-able has released a security update for N-central to address an incomplete patch for CVE-2026-18556; this issue has been assigned CVE-2026-18577.

  • CVE-2026-18556 - Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability - CVSSv4 base score: 8.2
  • CVE-2026-18577 - Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability - CVSSv4 base score: 8.2

Remediation advice

Affected organisations are strongly encouraged to review N‑central Security Update – August 2, 2026 and apply the relevant update as soon as possible.



Last edited: 3 August 2026 12:17 pm