How severe is CVE-2026-74886?

CVE-2026-74886 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.

Is CVE-2026-74886 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (33rd percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2026-74886?

Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.

When was CVE-2026-74886 published?

CVE-2026-74886 was published on 2026-08-17.

CVE-2026-74886

CVE-2026-74886 is a critical-severity vulnerability with a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-184.

Key facts

Severity: Critical (CVSS 3.x base score 9.8)
CVSS v4: 9.3
EPSS exploit prediction: 0% (33rd percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-184
Published: 2026-08-17
Last modified: 2026-08-17

Description

openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.0 contain a plugin sandbox bypass vulnerability where the PluginImportGuard blocks a different set of modules than the AST analyzer's DANGEROUS_MODULES set. Attackers can bypass AST analysis through string obfuscation or encoding to import unblocked dangerous modules like sys, shutil, multiprocessing, importlib, and pickle for arbitrary code execution.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-74886?: openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.0 contain a plugin sandbox bypass vulnerability where the PluginImportGuard blocks a different set of modules than the AST analyzer's DANGEROUS_MODULES set. Attackers can bypass AST analysis through string obfuscation or encoding to import unblocked dangerous modules like sys, shutil, multiprocessing, importlib, and pickle for arbitrary code execution.
How severe is CVE-2026-74886?: CVE-2026-74886 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 9.8, rated critical severity. It is exploitable over network with low attack complexity, requires no privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is high, integrity high, and availability high.
Is CVE-2026-74886 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (33rd percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-74886?: Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround. Given its critical severity, prioritise patching exposed systems.
When was CVE-2026-74886 published?: CVE-2026-74886 was published on 2026-08-17.

References

Other CWE-184 vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-47392 — Critical (CVSS 9.9): PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Prior to version 4.6.40 of PraisonAI, corresponding to version 1.6.40 of…
CVE-2026-28363 — Critical (CVSS 9.9): In OpenClaw before 2026.2.23, tools.exec.safeBins validation for sort could be bypassed via GNU long-option…
CVE-2026-56315 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): picklescan before 1.0.4 fails to block at least seven Python standard library modules (including uuid, _osx_support,…
CVE-2026-53873 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): picklescan before 1.0.4 contains an incomplete blocklist for the profile module that fails to block the module-level…
CVE-2025-71323 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): picklescan before 0.0.33 fails to block the ctypes module, allowing attackers to achieve remote code execution by…
CVE-2025-71320 — Critical (CVSS 9.8): picklescan before 0.0.33 contains an incomplete deny-list that fails to block pydoc.locate and operator.methodcaller…

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