---
id: CVE-2026-76462
title: Cisco Secure Client Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
summary: "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.\r\n\r\nThis vulnerability …"
severity: medium
cvss: 5.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N'
cvssSource: cna
cwe:
  - CWE-20
vendor: Cisco
product: Cisco Secure Client
affected:
  - secure_client 4.9.00086
  - secure_client 4.9.01095
  - secure_client 4.9.02028
  - secure_client 4.9.03047
  - secure_client 4.9.03049
  - secure_client 4.9.04043
  - secure_client 4.9.04053
  - secure_client 4.9.05042
  - secure_client 4.9.06037
  - secure_client 4.10.00093
  - secure_client 4.10.01075
  - secure_client 4.10.02086
  - secure_client 4.10.03104
  - secure_client 4.10.04065
  - secure_client 4.10.04071
  - secure_client 4.10.05085
  - secure_client 4.10.05095
  - secure_client 5.0.00238
  - secure_client 4.10.05111
  - secure_client 5.0.00529
  - secure_client 5.0.00556
  - secure_client 4.10.06079
  - secure_client 5.0.01242
  - secure_client 4.10.06090
  - secure_client 5.0.02075
  - secure_client 4.10.07061
  - secure_client 5.0.03072
  - secure_client 4.10.07062
  - secure_client 5.0.03076
  - secure_client 5.0.04032
  - secure_client 4.10.07073
  - secure_client 5.0.05040
  - secure_client 5.1.0.136
  - secure_client 5.1.1.42
  - secure_client 4.10.08025
  - secure_client 5.1.2.42
  - secure_client 4.10.08029
  - secure_client 5.1.3.62
  - secure_client 5.1.4.74
  - secure_client 5.1.5.65
  - secure_client 5.1.6.103
  - secure_client 5.1.7.80
  - secure_client 5.1.8.105
  - secure_client 5.1.8.122
  - secure_client 5.1.9.113
  - secure_client 5.1.10.233
  - secure_client 5.1.11.388
  - secure_client 5.1.12.146
  - secure_client 5.1.13.117
  - secure_client 5.1.13.177
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-10-21T16:41:41.722414Z'
published: '2026-10-21'
updated: '2026-10-21'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-21T17:19:12.083Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-76462'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sec-client-priv-esc-muF8eZdm
    label: cisco-sa-sec-client-priv-esc-muF8eZdm
tags:
  - cve.org
ingestedAt: '2026-10-21T17:07:51.306Z'
---

## Overview

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.

## Affected

- `secure_client 4.9.00086`
- `secure_client 4.9.01095`
- `secure_client 4.9.02028`
- `secure_client 4.9.03047`
- `secure_client 4.9.03049`
- `secure_client 4.9.04043`
- `secure_client 4.9.04053`
- `secure_client 4.9.05042`
- `secure_client 4.9.06037`
- `secure_client 4.10.00093`
- `secure_client 4.10.01075`
- `secure_client 4.10.02086`
- `secure_client 4.10.03104`
- `secure_client 4.10.04065`
- `secure_client 4.10.04071`
- `secure_client 4.10.05085`
- `secure_client 4.10.05095`
- `secure_client 5.0.00238`
- `secure_client 4.10.05111`
- `secure_client 5.0.00529`
- `secure_client 5.0.00556`
- `secure_client 4.10.06079`
- `secure_client 5.0.01242`
- `secure_client 4.10.06090`
- `secure_client 5.0.02075`
- `secure_client 4.10.07061`
- `secure_client 5.0.03072`
- `secure_client 4.10.07062`
- `secure_client 5.0.03076`
- `secure_client 5.0.04032`
- `secure_client 4.10.07073`
- `secure_client 5.0.05040`
- `secure_client 5.1.0.136`
- `secure_client 5.1.1.42`
- `secure_client 4.10.08025`
- `secure_client 5.1.2.42`
- `secure_client 4.10.08029`
- `secure_client 5.1.3.62`
- `secure_client 5.1.4.74`
- `secure_client 5.1.5.65`
- `secure_client 5.1.6.103`
- `secure_client 5.1.7.80`
- `secure_client 5.1.8.105`
- `secure_client 5.1.8.122`
- `secure_client 5.1.9.113`
- `secure_client 5.1.10.233`
- `secure_client 5.1.11.388`
- `secure_client 5.1.12.146`
- `secure_client 5.1.13.117`
- `secure_client 5.1.13.177`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.