Reported by 7 outlets
ServiceNow Fixes Five AI Platform Flaws Enabling SQL Injection, Data Theft and Privilege Escalation
Why this score
- Breadth
- 2.00 / 2.0 · 7 sources
- Authority
- 1.20 / 2.0 · best outlet weight
- Severity
- 2.90 / 5.0 · CVSS + content signals
- Velocity
- 0.00 / 2.0 · updates in 48h
- Pickup speed
- 0.10 / 0.6 · time to second source
- Recency
- × 0.00 temporal multiplier
- Community
- + 0.00 / 1.5 · reddit signal
- Score
- 0.0 / 10 = base × recency + community
Desk analysis
ServiceNow's September 2026 advisory, KB3159623, issued five CVEs against the ServiceNow AI Platform on September 24, 2026, with hotfixes across the Yokohama, Zurich and Australia release branches. Two are critical at CVSS v4.0 9.3. CVE-2026-13016 is an unauthenticated SQL injection, tracked under product problem PRB2036897, that under certain circumstances lets an attacker run arbitrary SQL statements against an instance's underlying database. CVE-2026-86860 is a missing authorization flaw that exposes sensitive instance data to unauthenticated users and opens a path to privilege escalation. The rest are high severity: CVE-2026-86858, unauthenticated privilege escalation via GraphQL at 8.7; CVE-2026-86859, arbitrary record disclosure at 8.7; and CVE-2026-86857, an authorization bypass at 8.4. ServiceNow says it found no evidence of malicious exploitation, that the issues surfaced through internal testing, customer assessments and bug bounty reports, and researchers have not yet published proof-of-concept code.
What separates CVE-2026-13016 from routine web injection is the layer it lands on: roles, ACLs and scoped-application boundaries in ServiceNow all sit above the database, so arbitrary SQL against the instance database bypasses every permission check the platform enforces for its own users, putting workflow records, case-management data, authentication material and configuration within reach in a single step. The exposure also splits in a way the event coverage never spells out: ServiceNow pushed the fix to its hosted fleet automatically, so the population still exposed after September 24 is almost exactly the self-hosted and partner-hosted instances whose operators must pull hotfixes themselves, often while running older patch levels. That turns a five-flaw advisory into a short, auditable list of responsible parties rather than an internet-wide countdown, and with industry telemetry putting ServiceNow in over 80 percent of Fortune 500 firms, the data concentration behind five pre-auth flaws makes the vendor's clean exploitation record a deadline rather than a relief.
Hosted instances were already updated on the vendor side, so the work belongs to self-hosted and partner operators: verify the running build and move to Yokohama Patch 13 Hot Fix 5a, Zurich Patch 10 Hot Fix 3b, Zurich Patch 10 Hot Fix 4a W32, Zurich Patch 11 Hot Fix 3, Australia Patch 2 Hot Fix 4b W32, Australia Patch 4 Hot Fix 3 or Australia Patch 5 as applicable. Until patched, keep instance UI and API surfaces off the public internet or behind allowlists, since every flaw in the set requires no valid session or bypasses authorization. The hunt is in instance audit and transaction history: unauthenticated sessions reading or updating records outside role scope, GraphQL endpoint traffic from sources with no session, which is the CVE-2026-86858 path, and unexpected privilege or record changes consistent with CVE-2026-86860. Any such hit predating the patch window would indicate private exploit research given the absence of public code.
Two developments would change the assessment. The advisory itself notes that researchers who reported issues through responsible disclosure may publish their findings, so a PoC release is a foreseeable near-term event, and public code for a pre-auth SQL injection on a platform this widely deployed typically reaches mass scanning within days. A KEV listing or vendor escalation for any of the five CVEs would falsify the current no-exploitation footing and convert the self-hosted patch backlog into incident response.
Timeline
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original reporting
ServiceNow Fixes Five AI Platform Flaws Enabling SQL Injection, Data Theft and Privilege Escalation
cyberpress.org · 18d ago · September 25th, 2026
ServiceNow released security updates for five vulnerabilities in its AI Platform, including two critical flaws that could let unauthenticated attackers execute SQL commands , extract sensitive instance data, and potentially escalate privileges. The September 2026 advisory, tracked as KB3159623 and published on September 24, addresses CVE-2026-86857, CVE-2026-86858, CVE-2026-13016, CVE-2026-86859, and CVE-2026-86860. ServiceNow said it found no evidence that the vulnerabilities had been exploited maliciously in the wild. ServiceNow Fixes Five AI Platform Flaws The most severe issue is CVE-2026-13016, a critical SQL injection vulnerability identified in the ServiceNow AI Platform. Under certain circumstances, the flaw could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary SQL statements against an affected instance’s underlying database. Successful exploitation could enable attackers to access, alter, or potentially destroy instance data beyond intended authorization boundaries. SQL injection vulnerabilities remain especially dangerous in enterprise platforms because database access can expose authentication information, workflow records, customer data, case-management information, configuration values, and other business-critical assets stored within an instance. ServiceNow has linked the issue to product problem record PRB2036897 and rated it critical using the CVSS v4.0 calculator. A second critical vulnerability, CVE-2026-86860, stems from missing authorization contro
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update from support.servicenow.com
[Security Advisory] September 2026 CVE Advisory Notification (KB3159623)
support.servicenow.com · 21d ago · September 23rd, 2026
ServiceNow's own advisory page carries a published date of 2026-09-23 in its page metadata (modified 2026-09-24) and states that on September 24, 2026 the vendor issued CVE-2026-86857, CVE-2026-86858, CVE-2026-13016, CVE-2026-86859 and CVE-2026-86860. The issues were identified through internal security testing, customer security assessments, or reports submitted through responsible disclosure and bug bounty programs, and each was remediated independently. The advisory notes that researchers who reported issues through responsible disclosure may choose to publish their findings, and that ServiceNow did not identify evidence of malicious exploitation.
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update from nvd.nist.gov
CVE-2026-13016: ServiceNow AI Platform SQL Injection (NVD record)
nvd.nist.gov · 19d ago · September 24th, 2026
Versions before Yokohama Patch 13 Hot Fix 5a, Zurich Patch 10 Hot Fix 3b, Zurich Patch 10 Hot Fix 4a W32, Zurich Patch 11 Hot Fix 3, Australia Patch 2 Hot Fix 4b W32, Australia Patch 4 Hot Fix 3 and Australia Patch 5 are listed as affected, with a vendor CVSS v4.0 score of 9.3 critical. The vendor statement records that the update was deployed automatically to hosted instances while partners and self-hosted customers must apply it themselves, and that ServiceNow is not currently aware of malicious exploitation.
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mentioned by securityonline.info
ServiceNow has patched five critical ServiceNow vulnerabilities, including an unauthenticated SQL injection flaw. Update your instances to s
securityonline.info · 19d ago · September 25th, 2026
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update from gbhackers.com
ServiceNow Security Flaws Allow Attackers to Execute SQL and Modify Instance Data
gbhackers.com · 18d ago · September 25th, 2026
The security advisory, published in September 2026 and tracked as KB3159623 on September 24, details the following vulnerabilities: CVE-2026-86857, CVE-2026-86858, CVE-2026-13016, CVE-2026-86859, and […] The post ServiceNow Security Flaws Allow Attackers to Execute SQL and Modify Instance Data appeared first on GBHackers Security | #1 Globally Trusted Cyber Security News Platform .
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update from malware.news
ServiceNow security advisory (AV26-963)
malware.news · 18d ago · September 25th, 2026
Serial number: AV26-963 Date: September 25, 2026 As of September 24, 2026, ServiceNow is affected by vulnerabilities in the following product: ServiceNow AI Platform Versions prior to Australia Patch 2 Hot Fix 4b W32 Versions prior to Australia Patch 4 Hot Fix 3 Versions prior to Australia Patch 5 Versions prior to Yokohama Patch 13 Hot Fix 5a Versions prior to Zurich Patch 10 Hot Fix 3b Versions prior to Zurich Patch 10 Hot Fix 4a W32 Versions prior to Zurich Patch 11 Hot Fix 3 The Cyber Centre encourages users and administrators to review the provided web links and apply any necessary updates as they become available. September 2026 CVE Advisory Notification ServiceNow security advisories Article Link: ServiceNow security advisory (AV26-963) - Canadian Centre for Cyber Security