Quest · KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) · Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) Improper Authentication Vulnerability
Verdict
Patch soon · actively exploited, reachable from the internet without credentials, and in the top 25% of CVEs by near-term exploitation probability
Added to CISA KEV 2026-04-20 · exploited in the wild for 160 days
CVSS 10.0 CRITICAL. The score is a summary; these three components are the part that decides whether something scanning the internet can use it.
| Attack vector | networkreachable over the network, with no local access needed |
|---|---|
| Privileges required | noneneeds no credentials at all |
| User interaction | nonecan be triggered with nobody interacting with the page or request |
| Base vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| Weakness | CWE-287 |
This describes the vulnerability. It says nothing about whether your systems run it.
EPSS puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.0249, which places it in the top 25% of all tracked CVEs. The percentile is the more useful half: 0.18 in absolute terms sounds low until you know most of the internet-facing software in the world scores under that.
| EPSS probability | 0.0249 |
|---|---|
| Percentile | 0.840 — top 25% |
| Added to KEV | 2026-04-20 |
|---|---|
| Days exploited | 160 |
| Federal remediation due | not set |
| Ransomware use | no known ransomware campaign use |
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) 13.0.x before 13.0.385, 13.1.x before 13.1.81, 13.2.x before 13.2.183, 14.0.x before 14.0.341 (Patch 5), and 14.1.x before 14.1.101 (Patch 4) contains an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows attackers to impersonate legitimate users without valid credentials. The vulnerability exists in the SSO authentication handling mechanism and can lead to complete administrative takeover.