ServiceNow Patches 3 Critical Code Injection Vulnerabilities

Summary

ServiceNow released patches for four vulnerabilities, including three critical code injection flaws in its AI platform with maximum CVSS scores of 10.0. CVE-2026-18885 allows arbitrary code execution, CVE-2026-18886 enables privilege escalation and data modification, and CVE-2026-74820 is an SQL injection flaw permitting unauthorized database access. All three critical vulnerabilities require no authentication or user interaction and can be exploited with low complexity, posing significant risk to self-hosted instances during the disclosure-to-patch lag.

Full text

ServiceNow has announced patches for four vulnerabilities, including three critical code injection flaws in the ServiceNow AI platform, each with a maximum severity (CVSS score of 10/10). The first of the critical bugs, tracked as CVE-2026-18885, allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the ServiceNow platform under certain circumstances. An attacker could exploit the weakness to gain access to and potentially modify arbitrary data, ServiceNow notes in its advisory. The second critical defect, CVE-2026-18886, is described as an improper access control issue. It could allow an attacker to create or modify arbitrary data and elevate their privileges. Tracked as CVE-2026-74820, the third critical vulnerability is an SQL injection flaw that allows an attacker to execute arbitrary SQL statements against the underlying ServiceNow database. An attacker could exploit the bug to “gain access to, or modify, instance data beyond what was intended,” ServiceNow says.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading. According to the company, none of the three vulnerabilities requires authentication or user interaction. All three can be exploited in low-complexity attacks. The fourth issue, tracked as CVE-2026-6876 (CVSS score of 8.7), is a high-severity sandbox escape weakness that could be exploited without authentication for code execution within the Now Platform. An attacker could exploit the security defect to gain “more access to the Now Platform than intended,” the company says. ServiceNow says it has rolled out patches for all four vulnerabilities across its hosted instances. The company also released hotfixes for self-hosted instances, encouraging customers to apply them as soon as possible. The hotfixes are available for ServiceNow’s Xanadu, Yokohama, Zurich, and Australia releases. According to iCOUNTER director of counter fraud operations Jason Brown, security teams should prioritize patching their ServiceNow instances, as attackers are quick to exploit newly discovered vulnerabilities. “Everyone running ServiceNow on their own infrastructure now has to go find, schedule, and apply that patch themselves, and in a lot of organizations that process takes weeks, not days. During those weeks, an unauthenticated attacker with a working exploit for the GraphQL Composite Data API code injection bug or the SQL injection flaw has a real shot at systems that sit next to HR records, vendor onboarding, and finance approvals,” Brown said. “I spent years chasing fraud operators who specifically target that lag between disclosure and patch adoption, because they know it’s where the easy access is. My advice to any security team running ServiceNow self-hosted right now is simple: don’t wait for your normal patch cycle, treat this one as urgent and confirm it’s applied this week,” he added. Related: Critical Ruby on Rails Vulnerability in Attackers’ Crosshairs Related: CISA Warns of Exploited Gitea Vulnerability Related: Stealthy ‘City-Forum’ Attacks Target Salesforce and ServiceNow With Custom Toolset Related: Exploitation of ServiceNow Vulnerability Seen Days After Disclosure Written By Ionut Arghire Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek. Daily Briefing Newsletter Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing for the latest cybersecurity threats, trends, and expert insights. 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Indicators of Compromise

• cve — CVE-2026-18885
• cve — CVE-2026-18886
• cve — CVE-2026-74820
• cve — CVE-2026-6876

Entities