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Under Active Attack

Executive Summary

The Dutch National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued an urgent warning on September 12, 2026, about imminent exploitation of two critical vulnerabilities in Check Point VPN products. CVE-2026-85102 involves improper certificate validation during VPN negotiation, while CVE-2026-85103 is a heap overflow in the VPN certificate ASN.1 decoder. Both flaws allow remote code execution on Security Gateways and Management Servers, affecting versions R81.20, R82, R82.10, R81.10.x, and R82.00.x. Check Point released patches on September 9, but the NCSC warns exploitation attempts are expected soon, potentially allowing attackers to gain full system control, access confidential data, and disrupt operations.

This incident highlights the growing threat landscape targeting VPN infrastructure, particularly as organizations continue to rely heavily on remote access solutions post-pandemic. The combination of critical severity scores and the NCSC's assessment of imminent exploitation underscores the urgency for organizations to prioritize patch management and implement additional VPN security controls.

Why This Matters Now

VPN vulnerabilities represent a critical attack vector as remote work remains prevalent. With the Dutch NCSC warning of imminent exploitation and no public PoC available yet, organizations have a narrow window to patch before widespread attacks begin.

Attack Path Analysis

Related CVEs

MITRE ATT&CK® Techniques

Potential Compliance Exposure

Sector Implications

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

Both CVE-2026-85102 and CVE-2026-85103 allow remote code execution without authentication, potentially giving attackers full control over Security Gateways and Management Servers.

Cloud Native Security Fabric Mitigations and ControlsCNSF

Based on the attack progression modeled above, these are the defensive controls that would constrain each stage.

Aviatrix Zero Trust CNSF would likely constrain attacker movement following Check Point VPN exploitation by implementing workload-level segmentation and east-west traffic controls. The segmented architecture would reduce blast radius and limit lateral access to cloud resources even after initial VPN infrastructure compromise.

Initial Compromise

Control: Cloud Native Security Fabric (CNSF)

Mitigation: Compromised VPN infrastructure would likely have reduced access to cloud workloads due to independent security fabric controls operating at the application and workload level rather than relying solely on perimeter-based VPN security

Privilege Escalation

Control: Zero Trust Segmentation

Mitigation: System-level access to VPN infrastructure would likely provide limited privilege escalation within cloud environments due to identity-based access controls and workload-level segmentation that operate independently of network gateway privileges

Lateral Movement

Control: East-West Traffic Security

Mitigation: Lateral movement capabilities would likely be constrained by micro-segmentation policies that inspect and control inter-workload communications, reducing the attacker's ability to pivot freely through cloud environments despite compromised VPN trust relationships

Command & Control

Control: Multicloud Visibility & Control

Mitigation: Command and control communications would likely be constrained by distributed visibility and monitoring capabilities that track workload-level communications across cloud environments, potentially detecting anomalous traffic patterns regardless of VPN trust relationships

Exfiltration

Control: Egress Security & Policy Enforcement

Mitigation: Data exfiltration capabilities would likely be reduced through granular egress controls that monitor and restrict outbound data flows from individual workloads, limiting the attacker's ability to extract sensitive information regardless of compromised VPN trust relationships

Impact (Mitigations)

Business impact would likely be constrained to workloads and data accessible within the reduced blast radius, with critical cloud assets potentially maintaining operational integrity due to segmented architecture and distributed security controls

Impact at a Glance

Affected Business Functions

  • Remote Access VPN Services
  • Network Security Infrastructure
  • Site-to-Site VPN Connectivity
  • Secure Remote Work Operations
Operational Disruption

Estimated downtime: N/A

Financial Impact

Estimated loss: N/A

Data Exposure

Potential for complete system compromise allowing attackers to view or modify confidential data traversing VPN connections, access internal network resources, and disrupt secure communications

Recommended Actions

  • • Implement Zero Trust segmentation to limit lateral movement from compromised VPN infrastructure, ensuring workloads verify identity regardless of network position
  • • Deploy east-west traffic security controls to detect and prevent unauthorized inter-workload communication that bypasses perimeter security
  • • Establish egress security policies with FQDN filtering and anomaly detection to identify data exfiltration attempts even from trusted network segments
  • • Enable multicloud visibility and control to monitor traffic patterns and detect suspicious automation or repeated malformed requests across hybrid environments
  • • Implement inline IPS with Suricata signatures to detect and block known exploit patterns targeting VPN vulnerabilities before they reach critical infrastructure

Secure the Paths Between Cloud Workloads

A cloud-native security fabric that enforces Zero Trust across workload communication—reducing attack paths, compliance risk, and operational complexity.

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