Cisco APIC: Improper neutralization vulnerabilities in hardening release
Summary
Cisco APIC contains improper neutralization vulnerabilities (CWE-707) that were found in an internal security review and are grouped under this CVE. According to Cisco, the CVSS 3.1 base score is 9.8 (critical), and the vector indicates network access without authentication or user interaction. Cisco's advisory does not describe the exact attack path, and an attacker could potentially impact confidentiality, integrity and availability of the controller. Cisco states that no workarounds are available and that the issues are not known to be actively exploited.
Affected
- Cisco APIC 5.2(1g), 5.2(2e), 5.2(2f), 5.2(2g), 5.2(2h), 5.2(3e), 5.2(3f), 5.2(3g), 5.2(4d), 4e, 5.2(5c), 5.2(5d) (per CVE record; Cisco advisory lists 5.3 and earlier as affected)
- Cisco states the vulnerabilities affect Cisco APIC regardless of device configuration.
Fixed in
- Cisco APIC 6.0: fixed in 6.0(9h)
- Cisco APIC 6.1: fixed in 6.1(6g)
- Cisco APIC 6.2: fixed in 6.2(3g)
- Cisco APIC 5.3 and earlier: migrate to a fixed release
Workaround
No workarounds available according to Cisco. Restricting management access to APIC to trusted networks is a general interim measure, not a Cisco workaround.
Exploitation
- Cisco PSIRT is not aware of any public announcements or malicious use.
- CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation none, automatable yes, technical impact total.
- No public proof-of-concept found in the research.
Our recommendation
- Check whether any Cisco APIC instances exist in your environment; if none exist, this does not apply.
- Verify that APIC management interfaces are not reachable from the internet or from user networks.
- Schedule the upgrade to 6.0(9h), 6.1(6g) or 6.2(3g), or migrate older releases.
- Verify the running version after the upgrade and monitor for suspicious management-plane activity.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Cisco Security Advisory cisco-sa-hardening-apic-UOXWtfh sec.cloudapps.cisco.com
- Tenable plugin 364489 www.tenable.com
- Vulners Rapid7 entry for CVE-2026-76499 vulners.com
- SecurityWeek: Cisco patches a dozen critical vulnerabilities www.securityweek.com
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 30 Oct 2026, 20:43.
Original description (NVD)
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) 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-2026-76499 are related to improper neutralization issues that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-707.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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