CVE-2026-76500 in Application Policy Infrastructure Controller
Summary
by MITRE • 10/07/2026
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities.
The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-76500 are related to issues with improper control of a resource through its lifetime that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-664.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/07/2026
Cisco has released software hardening updates for the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller, commonly known as APIC, following an internal security review aimed at strengthening product quality and proactive defense postures. This initiative addresses several vulnerabilities identified within the codebase, specifically those cataloged under CVE-2026-76500. The core technical flaw associated with this identifier involves improper control of a resource throughout its lifecycle, which falls squarely under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-664. This classification indicates that the software fails to properly manage resources such as memory handles, file descriptors, or network connections from their creation until they are no longer needed by the system.
The technical nature of this vulnerability suggests a failure in resource management protocols within the APIC application logic. Improper control during the lifecycle typically manifests as either resource leaks where allocated objects are not released after use, leading to exhaustion of system resources over time, or improper release mechanisms that may leave handles open and susceptible to manipulation by malicious actors. In complex network orchestration platforms like Cisco ACI, such flaws can disrupt the stability of the controller itself, potentially causing service degradation or complete unavailability if critical internal processes are starved of necessary operating system resources.
From an operational impact perspective, these vulnerabilities pose a risk primarily related to availability and potential denial-of-service conditions rather than direct remote code execution or data exfiltration in their current description. An attacker with access to the affected components could potentially trigger resource exhaustion by repeatedly initiating operations that allocate but fail to properly deallocate resources. This sustained pressure on system limits can lead to crashes, freezes, or erratic behavior within the APIC environment, thereby disrupting network automation and policy enforcement capabilities across the data center fabric managed by ACI.
To mitigate these risks, administrators are strongly advised to apply the latest software hardening releases provided by Cisco as soon as feasible. These updates contain the necessary code corrections to enforce proper resource lifecycle management protocols. Additionally, organizations should monitor system metrics for unusual spikes in memory or file descriptor usage that might indicate exploitation attempts before patches can be applied. Aligning with industry standards such as MITRE ATT&CK technique T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service is recommended when designing monitoring rules to detect anomalous resource consumption patterns associated with this class of vulnerability.