# CVE-2026-76480 — Cisco License On-Prem

> As of 2026-10-08, CVE-2026-76480 is a CRITICAL-severity vulnerability in Cisco License On-Prem, CVSS v3.1 9.8, EPSS 0.3% (24.4th percentile). Threadlinqs Intelligence links 2 tracked threat campaigns to CVE-2026-76480, most recently “Cisco Nexus 3000/9000 NX-OS and Cisco License (Smart Software Manager On-Prem) critical flaws enabling switch takeover (CVE-2026-76471, CVE-2026-76480, CVE-2026-76482 and others)”.

**Last updated:** 2026-10-08

## What is CVE-2026-76480?

As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the engineering team for Cisco License On-Prem, formerly Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem (SSM On-Prem), 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-2026-76480 are related to issues with improper authentication that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-306.

The record classifies CVE-2026-76480 under weakness class [CWE-306](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cwe/CWE-306). Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 3 days ago.

## Severity and exploitation probability

- **CVSS v3.1 base score:** 9.8 — CRITICAL (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **EPSS (FIRST):** 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 24.4% of all scored CVEs
- **CISA KEV:** Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- **Threadlinqs priority:** 5.9/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- **Published:** 2026-10-07, last modified 2026-10-08

## Is CVE-2026-76480 being exploited?

It currently carries a trending score of 45 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

## Affected products and versions

- [Cisco](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/vendors/cisco): License On-Prem

## How to fix CVE-2026-76480

No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-76480 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.

## Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-76480

2 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2026-76480, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

- [Cisco Nexus 3000/9000 NX-OS and Cisco License (Smart Software Manager On-Prem) critical flaws enabling switch takeover (CVE-2026-76471, CVE-2026-76480, CVE-2026-76482 and others)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-3082) — CRITICAL · 2026-10-09
- [Cisco October 2026 Security Advisories: Critical Flaws in Meraki, License (SSM) On-Prem, NX-OS, APIC and Finesse (CVE-2026-76464, CVE-2026-20328, CVE-2026-76485 and others)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-3108) — CRITICAL · 2026-10-09

## Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, GitHub Security Advisories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on 2026-10-10.

**Other references**

- [sec.cloudapps.cisco.com](https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-hardening-ssm-Ph77wdhf)

Canonical: https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-76480
Full detection coverage and IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2026-76480 via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier): https://intel.threadlinqs.com/mcp