1. Executive summary
Recorded Future Insikt Group identified 73 high-impact vulnerabilities actively exploited or operationally weaponised in August 2026, 43 of them rated Very Critical by Recorded Future Risk Score — a 14% decrease from July. Thirty-one were surfaced via the CISA KEV catalogue, 32 validated from open sources, seven from vendor telemetry, and three exclusively from honeypot data. The set spans 45 vendors, with Microsoft accounting for ~11%, and includes multiple items directly relevant to EMEA financial services estates: PaperCut NG/MF (two KEV-listed flaws, CVSS 8.8 and 9.4), Progress Telerik UI (CVE-2019-18935, CVSS 9.8, EPSS 100%), Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint, VMware vCenter, Citrix NetScaler, and Progress LoadMaster. Attribution of the AI-assisted exploitation activity to Chinese-speaking group UAT-10147 is unconfirmed — the actor has no MITRE ATT&CK profile in our verified reference data. The bottom line for clients: a broad, partially KEV-mandated patch backlog concentrated in perimeter, web-application, and identity infrastructure, with public PoCs available for 53 of the 73 vulnerabilities.
2. Regulatory framing
| Article | Trigger (the fact in this item) | Practical impact |
|---|---|---|
| DORA Art. 24: digital operational resilience testing — general requirements | 53 of the 73 vulnerabilities have public PoC exploits or scanners, and Insikt published Nuclei templates for CVE-2025-62593 (Ray), CVE-2026-72898 (Metabase), and CVE-2026-9198 (IBM Langflow) — concrete, ready-to-run test artefacts against products in scope this month | Fold the named Nuclei templates and PoC-backed checks into the resilience-testing cycle for internet-facing instances of these products; document results |
| DORA Art. 28: ICT third-party risk — general principles | The exploited set includes remote monitoring and management products (N-able N-central, CVE-2026-18556 and CVE-2026-18577) — the tooling class used by managed service providers that financial entities rely on | Verify with RMM/managed-service providers whether affected N-central versions are deployed and patched; reflect in third-party risk assessments |
| NIS2 Art. 21(2)(d): supply chain security measures | 17 of the 73 vulnerabilities are at least five years old (oldest ~16 years), indicating long-tail unpatched components persisting inside supplier-delivered software stacks | Require suppliers to evidence patch status against this month's exploited list, prioritising the legacy CVEs (2010–2022 vintage) |
No UK NIS 2018 duty is specifically engaged by the facts of this item beyond generic patching obligations.
3. Technical analysis & attack chain
This is a monthly exploited-vulnerability landscape, not a single intrusion; the triage table below is ordered KEV-first, then by EPSS from verified reference data. Full mechanism depth is given only for the most urgent entries.
Prioritised triage table (verified CVSS / KEV / EPSS)
| CVE | Component | CVSS | KEV / EPSS | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2019-18935 | Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX | 9.8 CRITICAL | KEV (2021-11-03) / EPSS 100% | Deserialization of untrusted data (CWE-502); used by UAT-10147 for initial access; long-standing web-shell vector in .NET estates |
| CVE-2020-0796 | Microsoft Windows 10 / Server SMBv3 | 10.0 CRITICAL | KEV (2022-02-10) / EPSS 100% | SMBv3 RCE (CWE-119); wormable-class, pre-auth |
| CVE-2017-0199 | Microsoft Office / WordPad | 7.8 HIGH | KEV (2021-11-03) / EPSS 100% | RTF/OLE document-borne RCE; direct phishing-to-workstation path |
| CVE-2021-23758 | Ajax.NET Professional (AjaxPro) | 8.1 HIGH | KEV (2026-08-26) / EPSS 84% | Deserialization (CWE-502); used by UAT-10147 for initial access; newly KEV-listed this cycle |
| CVE-2019-1068 | Microsoft SQL Server | 8.8 HIGH | KEV (2026-08-26) / EPSS 53% | Improper input validation RCE; public PoC exists; newly KEV-listed |
| CVE-2026-82078 | PaperCut NG/MF | 9.4 CRITICAL | KEV (2026-08-31) / EPSS 2% | Unsafe reflection (CWE-470); public PoC; exploitation escalated to active intrusions per SecurityWeek |
| CVE-2026-81578 | PaperCut NG/MF | 8.8 HIGH | KEV (2026-08-31) / EPSS 2% | Authentication bypass by primary weakness (CWE-305); same product, same KEV date |
| CVE-2015-3246 | Red Hat libuser | 5.1 MEDIUM | KEV (2026-08-26) / EPSS 9% | TOCTOU race (CWE-367); used by UAT-10147 for Linux local privilege escalation |
| CVE-2015-5287 | Red Hat Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) | 7.8 HIGH | KEV (2026-08-26) / EPSS 5% | CWE-59; Linux LPE chain component used by UAT-10147 |
| CVE-2020-1472 | Microsoft Windows Server (Netlogon) | 5.5 MEDIUM | KEV (2021-11-03) / EPSS 99% | Zerologon; domain-controller compromise path; note NVD scores this 5.5 despite its historical impact |
Most urgent entries — mechanism and attack-chain detail
- CVE-2019-18935 (Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX, CVSS 9.8, EPSS 100%). Untrusted-data deserialization (CWE-502) in the Telerik dialog handler (
DialogHandler/upload endpoints inTelerik.Web.UI.dll). An unauthenticated attacker who can reach the handler and knows or brute-forces the Telerik encryption keys submits a crafted serialized object, achieving RCE as the application-pool identity. Insikt reports UAT-10147 used this for initial access against internet-facing servers. This CVE is the historical companion to CVE-2019-18935's key-disclosure pair and remains a top web-shell implant vector in .NET financial-sector estates. KEV-listed since 2021; EPSS 100%. - CVE-2020-0796 (Windows 10/Server SMBv3, CVSS 10.0, EPSS 100%). Improper restriction of operations within memory bounds (CWE-119) in SMBv3.1.1 compression — "SMBGhost." Pre-authentication RCE against exposed TCP 445. Intranet lateral movement and wormable propagation potential; patching is years old, so any August 2026 exploitation implies a seriously unmaintained segment.
- CVE-2026-82078 / CVE-2026-81578 (PaperCut NG/MF, CVSS 9.4 / 8.8, both KEV 2026-08-31). Unsafe reflection (CWE-470) and authentication bypass by primary weakness (CWE-305) respectively. PaperCut print-management servers are commonly internet-exposed in branch estates and hold internal directory credentials. SecurityWeek corroborates that exploitation has escalated to active intrusions and that CISA added both to KEV on 2026-08-31. Public PoC exists for CVE-2026-82078. Both carry EPSS 2% today — low probability relative to the decade-old entries, but the KEV listing plus observed intrusions makes them the freshest patch-now items.
UAT-10147 campaign chain (single-sourced; verify before enforcement). The full actor chain — initial access via CVE-2019-18935 (Telerik), CVE-2021-23758 (AjaxPro), CVE-2021-29441/CVE-2021-29442 (Nacos), and CVE-2022-27925 (Zimbra), followed by Linux local privilege escalation via CVE-2010-3904, CVE-2015-3246, CVE-2015-5287, CVE-2021-3156, CVE-2022-0847, and CVE-2022-0995, and post-compromise use of DeepAudit and PentestGPT — rests on Insikt Group's reporting of Cisco Talos observations. Attribution to UAT-10147 as a Chinese-speaking group is unconfirmed: the actor has no MITRE ATT&CK profile in our verified reference data. Treat the campaign composition as a credible single-source picture of how this month's CVEs chain together in practice, not as an established attribution.
Long tail (one line per patch mechanism)
- Deserialization flaws (CWE-502, the joint most common class): patch Telerik UI (CVE-2019-18935), AjaxPro (CVE-2021-23758), ownCloud (CVE-2023-49105), Apache Tomcat (CVE-2026-34486), and the Log4j GitHub Issue #4255 allowlist bypass (no CVE assigned; Apache classifies it as a hardening gap).
- Missing/improper authentication on admin planes: patch PaperCut (both CVEs above), Nacos (CVE-2021-29441/29442), Zimbra (CVE-2022-27925, CVE-2026-73570), Roundcube (CVE-2025-49113), miniOrange SAML plugins (CVE-2026-15981, CVE-2026-61979), and Hikvision/Dahua camera firmware (CVE-2017-7921, CVE-2021-33044/33045).
- Network-edge / application-delivery appliances: patch Cisco ASA/FTD (CVE-2026-20349), Citrix NetScaler ADC/Gateway (CVE-2026-8452, CVE-2026-3055), Progress LoadMaster (CVE-2026-8037), F5 BIG-IP (CVE-2023-46747), Fortinet FortiOS/FortiProxy (CVE-2024-55591, CVE-2025-24472), Sophos Firewall (CVE-2022-1040), and Palo Alto PAN-OS (CVE-2026-0300).
- Linux kernel LPE set: patch CVE-2022-0847 (Dirty Pipe), CVE-2022-0995, CVE-2026-53362, and CVE-2010-3904 — the post-compromise escalation toolkit used against web servers.
- Microsoft estate: patch SQL Server (CVE-2019-1068), SharePoint (CVE-2026-55040), IKE service extensions (CVE-2026-33824), Windows AFD for WinSock (CVE-2026-68820), plus the legacy Office/WordPad (CVE-2017-0199), SMBv3 (CVE-2020-0796), and Netlogon (CVE-2020-1472) items.
- AI/developer/analytics stack: patch Ray (CVE-2025-62593), Metabase (CVE-2026-72898), IBM Langflow (CVE-2026-9198), Langflow (CVE-2026-33017), n8n (CVE-2025-68613), MLflow (CVE-2026-64849), Gitea (CVE-2026-60004), JetBrains TeamCity (CVE-2026-63077), GitLab (CVE-2026-19478), JFrog Artifactory (CVE-2026-66384), and Jenkins Git Plugin (CVE-2022-36883).
- RMM/virtualisation/other: patch N-able N-central (CVE-2026-18556, CVE-2026-18577), VMware vCenter (CVE-2026-59310), TrueConf Server (CVE-2026-72529/72530), Oracle HTTP Server/WebLogic proxy plug-in (CVE-2026-21962), SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer (CVE-2025-31324), Atlassian Confluence (CVE-2023-22527), IBM Aspera Faspex (CVE-2022-47986), PTC Windchill/FlexPLM (CVE-2026-12569), FUXA (CVE-2026-25895), PHP (CVE-2024-4577), Apple platform stack (CVE-2025-43529), macOS (CVE-2026-65400), WordPress (CVE-2026-63030), and Marimo (CVE-2026-39987).
4. Mitigation & containment
P1 — within 24 hours
- PaperCut NG/MF (CVE-2026-82078, CVE-2026-81578): upgrade to the vendor-fixed release on all PaperCut NG/MF servers. Until patched, remove PaperCut application servers from internet exposure (restrict the web console and application-server ports at the firewall to admin VPN ranges) and review PaperCut server logs for unrecognised admin sessions and unexpected script/printer object creation. KEV-listed 2026-08-31 with confirmed active intrusions.
- Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX (CVE-2019-18935): upgrade
Telerik.Web.UI.dllto a fixed version across all ASP.NET applications; if immediate upgrade is impossible, remove or restrict the vulnerable dialog-handler endpoints and rotate Telerik encryption keys. Hunt IIS boxes for unexpected.aspx/.ashxfiles under application directories. - SMBv3 (CVE-2020-0796): apply the March 2020-and-later cumulative updates; block TCP 445 at all perimeter boundaries; any unpatched host reaching this advisory's date indicates an unmanaged segment — isolate it.
- Netlogon (CVE-2020-1472): enforce secure RPC on all domain controllers and confirm full patching; audit DC event logs for Netlogon elevation events.
- Office RTF vector (CVE-2017-0199): confirm workstations are on current Office builds; block OLE object activation via policy where feasible.
P2 — within 72 hours
- Newly KEV-listed this cycle (2026-08-26): patch Microsoft SQL Server (CVE-2019-1068) — prioritise any instance with TCP 1433 reachable beyond the app tier; patch AjaxPro-bearing applications (CVE-2021-23758); patch Red Hat libuser/ABRT (CVE-2015-3246, CVE-2015-5287) on all RHEL-family servers.
- Perimeter appliances: patch Cisco ASA/FTD, Citrix NetScaler ADC/Gateway, Progress LoadMaster, F5 BIG-IP, FortiOS/FortiProxy, Sophos Firewall, and PAN-OS per the CVE list in §3; verify management planes are not internet-facing.
- Mail/collaboration: patch Zimbra (CVE-2022-27925, CVE-2026-73570) and Roundcube (CVE-2025-49113) — both are direct webmail-to-RCE paths used in this month's activity.
- AI/developer tooling: patch Ray, Metabase, Langflow (both CVEs), n8n, MLflow, Gitea, TeamCity, and GitLab. These services are frequently stood up internet-facing by data-science teams outside normal change control; enumerate them via external attack-surface scan.
P3 — within 7 days
- Complete the long-tail patching in §3, prioritising the deserialization class (Telerik, AjaxPro, ownCloud, Tomcat) and the Linux kernel LPE set on all internet-facing Linux web servers.
- Run Insikt's Nuclei templates for CVE-2025-62593 (Ray), CVE-2026-72898 (Metabase), and CVE-2026-9198 (IBM Langflow) against internal instances (available via the Recorded Future Intelligence Platform); exercise caution with third-party PoCs — Insikt did not test them for accuracy or efficacy.
- Patch the Log4j GitHub Issue #4255 deserialization allowlist bypass as a hardening item even though Apache assigned no CVE.
- Validate camera/video-surveillance firmware (Hikvision, Dahua) and OT-adjacent FUXA deployments, which are commonly forgotten estate.
5. Indicators of compromise
No indicators of compromise available in the source material.
Behavioural indicators
| Behaviour | Where to observe | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Exploitation attempts against Telerik dialog-handler endpoints (CVE-2019-18935) | IIS logs on ASP.NET application servers; WAF logs | High (multi-source: Insikt + KEV) |
| Post-compromise execution of DeepAudit and PentestGPT tooling on compromised Windows/Linux web servers | EDR process telemetry; unexpected binary execution under web-service working directories | Medium (single-sourced to Insikt/Cisco Talos reporting on UAT-10147) |
| Linux LPE chain execution (CVE-2010-3904, CVE-2015-3246, CVE-2015-5287, CVE-2021-3156, CVE-2022-0847, CVE-2022-0995) following web-server compromise | Audit logs: sudo/ABRT/libuser events; kernel pipe-flag anomalies; auditd execve sequences | Medium (single-sourced actor chain) |
| Failed exploitation attempts against Langflow and n8n using Hermes Agent and DeepSeek (separate Chinese-speaking actor) | WAF/API gateway logs on AI-platform endpoints | Low (single-sourced; attempts failed) |
6. Detection
Insufficient indicators to author detection rules.
The sources name CVEs, products, and actor tooling but contain no threat artefacts (strings, file paths, registry keys, command lines, mutexes, or hashes) attributable to the exploitation activity itself. The May 2026 corpus sample hash (UtilifySetup.tmp) belongs to an unrelated Ghost CMS ClickFix campaign and is out of scope for this advisory.
CVE assessment
10 referenced CVEs — 10 actively exploited (CISA KEV), 3 critical (CVSS ≥ 9.0)
| CVE | CVSS | Exploited | EPSS | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2020-0796 | 10.0 Critical | ⚠ KEV 2022-02-10 | 100% | A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the Microsoft Server Message Block 3.1.1 (SMBv3) protocol handles… |
| CVE-2019-18935 | 9.8 Critical | ⚠ KEV 2021-11-03 | 100% | Progress Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX through 2019.3.1023 contains a .NET deserialization vulnerability in the RadAsyncUpload fu… |
| CVE-2026-82078 | 9.4 Critical | ⚠ KEV 2026-08-31 | 2% | An unsafe dynamic class loading vulnerability exists in the database connection utilities of PaperCut MF and PaperCut NG. The a… |
| CVE-2026-81578 | 8.8 High | ⚠ KEV 2026-08-31 | 2% | An improper access control vulnerability exists in the web management interface of PaperCut MF and PaperCut NG. Under specific… |
| CVE-2019-1068 | 8.8 High | ⚠ KEV 2026-08-26 | 53% | A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft SQL Server when it incorrectly handles processing of internal functio… |
| CVE-2021-23758 | 8.1 High | ⚠ KEV 2026-08-26 | 84% | All versions of package ajaxpro.2 are vulnerable to Deserialization of Untrusted Data due to the possibility of deserialization… |
| CVE-2015-5287 | 7.8 High | ⚠ KEV 2026-08-26 | 5% | The abrt-hook-ccpp help program in Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) before 2.7.1 allows local users with certain permissions… |
| CVE-2017-0199 | 7.8 High | ⚠ KEV 2021-11-03 | 100% | Microsoft Office 2007 SP3, Microsoft Office 2010 SP2, Microsoft Office 2013 SP1, Microsoft Office 2016, Microsoft Windows Vista… |
| CVE-2020-1472 | 5.5 Medium | ⚠ KEV 2021-11-03 | 99% | An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to… |
| CVE-2015-3246 | 5.1 Medium | ⚠ KEV 2026-08-26 | 9% | libuser before 0.56.13-8 and 0.60 before 0.60-7, as used in the userhelper program in the usermode package, directly modifies /… |
7. Sources
- Recorded Future Insikt Group — "August 2026 CVE Landscape" — https://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/august-2026-cve-landscape — 2026-09-08
- SecurityWeek — "PaperCut Exploitation Escalates to Active Intrusions" — https://www.securityweek.com/papercut-exploitation-escalates-to-active-intrusions/ — 2026 (CISA KEV additions for CVE-2026-82078 and CVE-2026-81578)
- Recorded Future Insikt Group — "July 2026 CVE Landscape" — https://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/july-2026-cve-landscape — 2026 (context: month-over-month trend)
- Recorded Future Insikt Group — "June 2026 CVE Landscape" — https://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/june-2026-cve-landscape — 2026 (context)
- Recorded Future Insikt Group — "May 2026 CVE Landscape" — https://www.recordedfuture.com/blog/may-2026-cve-landscape — 2026 (context)
8. Adverse Trace position
This is a broad exploited-vulnerability landscape, not a single-vendor patch cycle, and its severity lies in breadth: 73 actively exploited CVEs across 45 vendors, with the highest-probability items being the long-entrenched, EPSS ~100% flaws (Telerik CVE-2019-18935 at CVSS 9.8, SMBv3 CVE-2020-0796 at CVSS 10.0, Office CVE-2017-0199 at CVSS 7.8) rather than the headline August additions. For EMEA financial services, the immediate exposure is the perimeter and web-application tier — PaperCut, NetScaler, LoadMaster, Zimbra, Roundcube, Telerik — where these products are commonly internet-facing and hold privileged directory credentials. The UAT-10147 AI-assisted campaign narrative is single-sourced and its attribution is unconfirmed (no MITRE ATT&CK profile in our verified data); we treat it as directional intelligence on chaining behaviour, not as grounds for actor-specific enforcement. Clients should treat the KEV-listed items as non-negotiable patch obligations, use the Insikt Nuclei templates to sweep AI/developer tooling that may sit outside standard asset registers, and expect the deserialization and missing-authentication weakness classes to persist into September. Adverse Trace will monitor for corroboration of the UAT-10147 chain and for KEV additions among the remaining August items, and will issue a targeted follow-up if PaperCut intrusion details or IOCs surface.
Published via PulseTrace — Adverse Trace threat intelligence.