How severe is CVE-2026-74896?

CVE-2026-74896 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-2026-74896 being actively exploited?

It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (27th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2026-74896?

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-2026-74896 published?

CVE-2026-74896 was published on 2026-08-17.

CVE-2026-74896

CVE-2026-74896 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-693.

Key facts

Severity: Critical (CVSS 3.x base score 9.8)
CVSS v4: 9.3
EPSS exploit prediction: 0% (27th percentile)
Actively exploited: Not listed in CISA KEV
Weakness: CWE-693
Published: 2026-08-17
Last modified: 2026-08-17

Description

openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.0 contain a sandbox escape vulnerability in the DangerousPatternVisitor AST analyzer that fails to detect dunder attribute traversal techniques. Attackers can use __class__, __bases__, __subclasses__(), and __globals__ chains to access restricted functions and execute arbitrary system commands from plugin code.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-74896?: openssl_encrypt versions before 1.4.0 contain a sandbox escape vulnerability in the DangerousPatternVisitor AST analyzer that fails to detect dunder attribute traversal techniques. Attackers can use __class__, __bases__, __subclasses__(), and __globals__ chains to access restricted functions and execute arbitrary system commands from plugin code.
How severe is CVE-2026-74896?: CVE-2026-74896 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-2026-74896 being actively exploited?: It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (27th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-74896?: 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-2026-74896 published?: CVE-2026-74896 was published on 2026-08-17.

References

Other CWE-693 (Protection Mechanism Failure) vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-75874 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Sandbox escape in the Remote Settings Client component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 154 and Thunderbird 154.
CVE-2026-47140 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): vm2 is an open source vm/sandbox for Node.js. Prior to version 3.11.4, NodeVM blocks several dangerous Node.js builtins…
CVE-2026-34208 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): SandboxJS is a JavaScript sandboxing library. Prior to 0.8.36, SandboxJS blocks direct assignment to global objects…
CVE-2026-34938 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): PraisonAI is a multi-agent teams system. Prior to version 1.5.90, execute_code() in praisonai-agents runs…
CVE-2026-2761 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): Sandbox escape in the Graphics: WebRender component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 148, Firefox ESR 115.33,…
CVE-2022-32845 — Critical (CVSS 10.0): This issue was addressed with improved checks. This issue is fixed in watchOS 8.7, iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6, macOS…

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