Threat Intelligence Report — September 23, 2026 | 7 New KEVs · 168 Victims

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Report Date: 2026-09-23

New KEVs: 7  — unchanged vs last weekRansomware Victims: 168  ▼ -6 vs last week

7 vulnerabilities were added to the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog this period. Linux products show the strongest concentration of risk signals this week. Ransomware activity is moderate with 168 new victims posted to leak sites over the last 7 days, with Qilin posting the most victims.

On this page

  1. Patch This Week
  2. Top KEVs
  3. Security News
  4. Ransomware Activity
  5. Vendor-Specific Risks

Patch This Week

The top 3 KEVs to remediate right now, ranked by CISA deadline proximity, ransomware exploitation, and severity. These are confirmed exploited — if you do nothing else today, patch these.

  1. CVE-2025-39682 – Linux Kernel | CVSS 9.8 | EPSS 2.0% / 80th pct
    CISA deadline: 2026-09-21 (overdue by 2d) — Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.
  2. CVE-2026-53266 – Linux Kernel | CVSS 8.8 | EPSS 0.3% / 20th pct
    CISA deadline: 2026-09-21 (overdue by 2d) — Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.
  3. CVE-2026-7273 – Zyxel GS1900 Series Switches | CVSS 8.8 | EPSS 2.4% / 83th pct | PoC Available
    CISA deadline: 2026-09-24 (1d remaining) — Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.

Top KEVs

Vulnerabilities confirmed actively exploited in the wild by CISA — ranked by ransomware use, then severity. Patch these before anything else.

This Reporting Window

  • CVE-2026-93616 – Check Point Multiple Products | CVSS 9.8 (CRITICAL) | AV: Network | EPSS 2.4% / 84th pct | Ransomware Use: No
  • CVE-2026-85102 – Check Point Multiple Products | CVSS 9.8 (CRITICAL) | AV: Network | EPSS 0.7% / 50th pct | Ransomware Use: No
  • CVE-2025-39682 – Linux Kernel | CVSS 9.8 (CRITICAL) | AV: Network | EPSS 2.0% / 80th pct | Ransomware Use: No
  • CVE-2026-93952 – Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator | CVSS 9.5 (CRITICAL) | AV: Network | EPSS 0.7% / 53th pct | Ransomware Use: No
  • CVE-2026-94127 – F5 BIG-IP APM | CVSS 9.3 (CRITICAL) | AV: Network | EPSS 1.4% / 71th pct | Ransomware Use: No
  • CVE-2026-7273 – Zyxel GS1900 Series Switches | CVSS 8.8 (HIGH) | AV: Adjacent | EPSS 2.4% / 83th pct | Ransomware Use: No | PoC Available
  • CVE-2026-53266 – Linux Kernel | CVSS 8.8 (HIGH) | AV: Local | EPSS 0.3% / 20th pct | Ransomware Use: No

Security News

Advisories, threat research, and incident reports from 12 sources across government, commercial research, and security journalism — prioritized by source credibility.

Ransomware Activity

Victim counts posted to ransomware group leak sites — use this to gauge which groups are most active and which sectors and regions are being targeted.

20 new victims posted today
7-day total: 168 via Ransomware.live

Most Active Groups

Qilin 19 N0N 13 Akira 10 Metaencryptor 8 Storm 8

Group Intelligence

  • Qilin — Qilin ransomware was first observed in July of 2022. Qilin Ransomware is written in Golang and supports multiple encryption modes; all of which are controlled by the operator. Qilin actors practice double extortion – demanding payment for a decryptor, as well as for the non-release of stolen data.
  • Akira — The Akira ransomware group is said to have emerged in March 2023, and there's much speculation about its ties to the former CONTI ransomware group.<br> <br> It's worth noting that with the end of CONTI's operation, several affiliates migrated to independent campaigns such as Royal, BlackBasta, and others.<br> <br> According to some reports, Akira affiliates also work with other ransomware operations, such as Snatch and BlackByte, as an open directory of tools used by an Akira operator was identified, which also had connections to the Snatch ransomware.<br> <br> The first version of the Akira ransomware was written in C++ and appended files with the '.akira' extension, creating a ransom note named 'akira_readme.txt,' partially based on the Conti V2 source code. However, on June 29, 2023, a decryptor for this version was reportedly released by Avast.<br> <br> Subsequently, a version was released that fixed the decryption flaw on July 2, 2023. Since then, the new version is said to be written in Rust, this time called 'megazord.exe,' and it changes the extension to '.powerranges' for encrypted files.<br> <br> Most of Akira's initial access vectors use brute-force attempts on Cisco VPN devices (which use single-factor authentication only).<br> Additionally, exploitation of CVEs: CVE-2019-6693 and CVE-2022-40684 for initial access has been identified.<BR>Source: https://github.com/crocodyli/ThreatActors-TTPs
  • Metaencryptor — MetaEncryptor is a ransomware group first observed in mid-2023, targeting medium-to-large enterprises in legal, technology, logistics, manufacturing, and finance sectors primarily in the UK, Europe, and Southeast Asia, using AES-256/RSA-2048 encryption and double extortion.

Most Targeted Sectors

Technology 29 Manufacturing 22 Professional Services 22 Healthcare 14 Financial Services 12

Top Countries

US (56), IT (9), DE (9), BR (8), AR (6)

Notable Incidents

  • Kreishandwerkerschaft Borken (Professional Services · DE) — claimed by Rhysida. Kreishandwerkerschaft Borken Press coverage →
  • The Merrimack County (Government & Defense · US) — claimed by Booba Project. Government Administration Stolen data: 3 GB. Press coverage →

Vendor-Specific Risks

Vendors with confirmed KEV exploitation this week — the stacked bar shows how that exposure breaks down across exploited CVEs (red), critical CVEs to watch (orange), and news mentions (yellow). Prioritize patching vendors with the largest red segment.

Linux 2 Check Point 2 Zyxel 1 F5 1 Arista 1 KEVs CVEs Mentions

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