Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-28721

Acronis Cyber Protect ≤ 17.0.41186

Published
06 March 2026
Modified
11 March 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3 7.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0015 5th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-28721 is a high-severity Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere (CWE-610) vulnerability in Acronis Cyber Protect. Its CVSS base score is 7.3 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 5th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Local privilege escalation due to improper soft link handling. The following products are affected: Acronis Cyber Protect 17 (Windows) before build 41186.

CWE(s)
CWE-610

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

Local privilege escalation via improper symlink handling directly maps to exploitation for privilege escalation.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-28722Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2026-28711Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2024-55543Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2024-55540Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2026-28712Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2026-28717Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2023-44157Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2026-28709Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2026-28719Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect
CVE-2023-41749Same product: Acronis Cyber Protect

Affected Assets

acronis
cyber protect
≤ 17.0.41186

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • SI-10 Information Input Validation
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 3 hardening rules · 2 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

—

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match
prevent

Directly mitigates CWE-610 by validating file paths/references before following symbolic links, blocking crafted links that target privileged resources.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match
prevent

Enforces access decisions on the final target of any link, denying unauthorized elevation even if a malicious symlink is resolved.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match
prevent

Limits process privileges so that successful symlink traversal cannot reach higher-privileged objects or operations.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices directly require input validation and reference sanitization that prevent externally-controlled resource references.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software and data flows can detect anomalous external resource accesses that result from this weakness.

PR.IR-01 partial match
prevents

Network segmentation and access controls limit the blast radius when an external reference escapes its intended sphere.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing can detect instances of the weakness but does not prevent it at design or coding time.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle mandates validation of all external references to prevent uncontrolled resource access.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for controls against externally supplied resource identifiers.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles reduce the attack surface for externally controlled references but do not prescribe specific validation rules.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards require input validation and canonicalization to block externally controlled resource references.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
mitigates

Information access restriction limits what resources can be reached, indirectly reducing impact of external references.

References