# CVE-2026-86218 — N-able N-central

**CISA KEV**

> As of 2026-09-09, CVE-2026-86218 is a Critical-severity (band derived from the CVSS v4.0 score, not stated by the CNA) vulnerability in N-able N-central, CVSS v4.0 10, EPSS 0.7% (52.6th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2026-09-08), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2026-09-11. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 2 tracked threat campaigns to CVE-2026-86218, most recently “CVE-2026-86218 — Unauthenticated Pre-Auth Remote Code Execution in N-able N-central (Active Exploitation, CISA KEV)”.

**Last updated:** 2026-09-09

## What is CVE-2026-86218?

N-central is vulnerable to a pre-auth remote code execution This issue affects N-central: before 2026.3.1.14.

The record classifies CVE-2026-86218 under weakness class [CWE-96](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/96.html). 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 29 days ago.

## Severity and exploitation probability

- **CVSS v4.0 base score:** 10 — Critical (derived from score) (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H`)
- **EPSS (FIRST):** 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 52.6% of all scored CVEs
- **CISA KEV:** Listed since 2026-09-08, federal remediation deadline 2026-09-11
- **Threadlinqs priority:** 9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
- **Published:** 2026-09-06, last modified 2026-09-09

## Is CVE-2026-86218 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2026-86218 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-09-08, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2026-09-11 under BOD 22-01. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2026-86218 is publicly available. 1 public proof-of-concept repository is tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 60 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

- [HORKimhab/CVE-2026-86218](https://github.com/HORKimhab/CVE-2026-86218) (github)

## Affected products and versions

- [N-able](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/vendors/n-able): N-central

## How to fix CVE-2026-86218

Because CVE-2026-86218 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2026-09-11. No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-86218 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-2026-86218

2 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2026-86218, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

- [CVE-2026-86218 — Unauthenticated Pre-Auth Remote Code Execution in N-able N-central (Active Exploitation, CISA KEV)](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-2415) — CRITICAL · 2026-09-09
- [N-able N-central Authentication Bypass (CVE-2026-18577) Actively Exploited for Admin Takeover](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/threat/TL-2026-1830) — CRITICAL · 2026-08-03

## Sources

Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on 2026-09-10.

**Vendor advisory and patch**

- [me.n-able.com — vendor advisory](https://me.n-able.com/s/security-advisory/aArVy0000002Ld3KAE/cve202686218-preauthentication-remote-code-execution)

Canonical: https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-86218
Full detection coverage and IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2026-86218 via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier): https://intel.threadlinqs.com/mcp