---
id: "CVE-2026-76462"
kind: "vulnerability"
aliases: ["CVE-2026-76462"]
title: "Cisco Secure Client: local IPC flaw lets attackers elevate privileges"
severity: "medium"
cvss: 5.5
epss: 0.00144
exploited: false
status: "open"
category: "other"
products: []
ecosystems: []
tags: ["cisco-secure-client", "endpoints", "linux", "macos", "other", "windows"]
not_affected_if: ["no-local-user-access"]
published_at: "2026-10-21T17:19:06+00:00"
first_seen_at: "2026-10-23T21:57:29+00:00"
updated_at: "2026-10-25T04:10:46+00:00"
sources: [{"source": "nvd", "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-76462", "first_seen_at": "2026-10-23T21:57:29+00:00"}, {"source": "epss", "url": "https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-76462", "first_seen_at": "2026-10-24T13:15:54+00:00"}]
---

# Cisco Secure Client: local IPC flaw lets attackers elevate privileges

The Secure Firewall Posture module in Cisco Secure Client has insufficient input validation on its local IPC socket. An authenticated local user can send crafted messages to perform limited file writes as SYSTEM or root, which Cisco says can lead to full root on macOS and Linux.

_Summary, check and fix written by a model from the sources; labelled as such._

## How to check

- unknown

## Fix

- unknown

## Timeline

- 2026-10-23T21:57:29+00:00 nvd https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-76462
- 2026-10-24T13:15:54+00:00 epss https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-76462

## From the sources

A vulnerability in the interprocess communication (IPC) channel of the Secure Firewall Posture module in Cisco Secure Client could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device.

This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of crafted IPC messages to a local socket. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to perform limited file write operations on the filesystem with SYSTEM or root privileges.
Although this vulnerability affects the Secure Firewall Posture module in Cisco Secure Client on Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems, this vulnerability could be used to obtain full root privileges on macOS and Linux. For that reason Cisco has assigned this security advisory a Security Impact Rating (SIR) of High rather than Medium as the score indicates.

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_Free to read at a human pace. An API with keys and an MCP server are in preparation; early access: hello@infrastack.ai_