Improper Access Control in SonicWall NSM Export Causing Privilege Escalation
CVE-2026-96540 Published on October 14, 2026

An improper access control vulnerability has been identified in the SonicWall Network Security Manager (NSM) on-prem in export settings, potentially allowing a remote authenticated attacker to obtain sensitive information. This may allow the attacker to escalate privileges to an administrator or to intercept communications of other users of the NSM instance.

Vendor Advisory NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-96540 is exploitable with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

Attack Vector:
NETWORK
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
LOW
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

What is an AuthZ Vulnerability?

The software performs an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action, but it does not correctly perform the check. This allows attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.

CVE-2026-96540 has been classified to as an AuthZ vulnerability or weakness.


Affected Versions

SonicWall Network Security Manager (NSM) Version 4.3.1 and earlier versions is affected by CVE-2026-96540