Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a fresh warning to organizations after adding several critical vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, highlighting active risks across widely used platforms including Microsoft Windows and Adobe Acrobat.
The newly listed vulnerabilities include multiple Windows flaws that can be exploited for privilege escalation. One of them, CVE-2023-36424, affects the Windows Common Log File System and could allow attackers to gain elevated system privileges. Another, CVE-2025-60710, involves a link-following issue in Windows Task Scheduler processes, which attackers can abuse to escalate access within compromised environments.
CISA also highlighted vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat and Reader, including CVE-2020-9715, a long-standing use-after-free flaw that enables remote code execution. Despite being patched years ago, the continued presence of proof-of-concept exploits makes it a persistent threat, especially in environments that have not applied updates.
More recent concerns include zero-day vulnerabilities such as CVE-2026-34621 in Adobe Acrobat and CVE-2026-21643 in Fortinet FortiClient EMS, both of which allow attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely. These flaws significantly increase the risk level, as they can be exploited without requiring prior access to the system.
Another notable addition is CVE-2023-21529, a Microsoft Exchange vulnerability linked to ransomware activity, particularly campaigns involving the Medusa group. This highlights how attackers are actively chaining vulnerabilities to gain deeper access into enterprise environments.
CISA also drew attention to an older but still dangerous flaw, CVE-2012-1854, affecting Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. Although patched more than a decade ago, it continues to be targeted due to its ability to enable remote code execution through insecure library loading.
The inclusion of these vulnerabilities in the KEV catalog serves as a strong signal that attackers are actively leveraging them in real-world scenarios. Organizations are urged to prioritize patching, review their systems for exposure, and ensure that outdated software components are updated or removed.
This latest advisory underscores a recurring issue in cybersecurity: even long-patched vulnerabilities can remain exploitable if organizations fail to maintain proper update hygiene. As threat actors continue to reuse and combine known flaws, proactive patch management and continuous monitoring remain essential defenses.
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