ServiceNow patches three maximum severity flaws that could put enterprise data at risk

Code injection and SQL injection attacks have been around for decades, and they are still tried-and-true ways for attackers to compromise systems. ServiceNow’s latest trio of maximum severity flaws shows that even AI-era platforms remain vulnerable to these techniques: The software provider has released patches for three bugs in its ServiceNow AI Platform that could be exploited via low-complexity code injection, SQL injection, and privilege escalation attacks, with no user interaction required. Although its cloud-based instances have already been updated, ServiceNow advises self-hosted customers to upgrade or patch immediately. “You never want to see a 10/10 critical,” said David Shipley of Beauceron Security. “And you really don’t want to see three drop in row unless it’s an Olympic judging panel.” Gives attackers the ability to access, modify and create data The ServiceNow AI Platform, formerly the Now Platform, combines AI and autonomous agents, data, and security and governance controls across enterprise IT, employee, and customer relationship management (CRM) workflows. That makes it a juicy target for attackers. The three critical vulnerabilities now being patched are tracked as CVE-2026-18885, CVE-2026-18886, and CVE-2026-74820. CVE-2026-18885 would allow unauthenticated users to execute arbitrary code and access and/or modify instance data. CVE-2026-18886 could give malicious actors the ability to create or change instance data and escalate privileges, and the CVE-2026-74820 vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary SQL statements against an instance’s underlying database to alter data. Along with these, ServiceNow also patched the high-severity CVE-2026-6876, a sandbox escape vulnerability impacting ServiceNow AI. This vulnerability could allow attackers with basic privileges to perform remote code execution (RCE). ServiceNow said in its advisory that it was “not currently aware of exploitation” of any of the flaws. The company has released patches for all four, for impacted Xanadu, Yokohama, and Zurich versions of the platform. Recently, ServiceNow has also issued patches for several other critical vulnerabilities, including June’s API issue and last month’s CVE-2026-6875, a pre-authentication sandbox escape in its AI Platform. Like the vulnerabilities disclosed this week, it could allow unauthenticated users to execute code. And earlier this month, independent research also identified attacks exposing company data. Concerning severity and accessibility What makes the current vulnerabilities particularly serious is the combination of severity and accessibility, noted Ensar Seker, CISO at SOCRadar; exploitation can potentially occur without authentication. “That means an attacker may not need to steal credentials or compromise an employee before attempting to exploit the platform,” Seker said, noting that CVE-2026-18885 is especially concerning because it could support arbitrary code execution through the GraphQL Composite Data API. This means that, in a successful attack, “code injection can effectively turn a trusted enterprise application into an attacker-controlled execution environment,” he pointed out. CVE-2026-74820 presents a different, but equally serious risk, he said. With SQL injection, an attacker can interact with an underlying database in unintended ways, potentially reading, manipulating, or destroying data. In general, code injection and SQL injection attacks are dangerous because they break fundamental security boundaries between data supplied by a user and instructions executed by a system, Seker explained. Once attacker-controlled input is interpreted as code or a database command, application-level access controls may no longer be adequate. Then, he noted, there’s the role ServiceNow plays inside enterprises that use it across their operations, assets, approvals, and integrations. Successful attackers can not only gain access to sensitive operational data, but move laterally and abuse trusted customer and partner workflows and integrations. “Compromising that type of platform can therefore be much more significant than compromising a standalone application,” he said. Attackers targeting platforms with extensive integrations may be more interested in the credentials, tokens, and systems connected to them, rather than just the platform itself. Patch, but also verify external integrations The immediate priority for enterprises is to determine which ServiceNow instances and versions they operate, and confirm they have been patched, Seker advised. Security teams should also inventory ServiceNow integrations, APIs, and highly privileged service accounts. Further, he said, teams should review historical telemetry for indicators of attempted exploitation, like unusual requests involving affected APIs and upload functionality. They should also look for unexpected administrative or privilege changes, unexplained creation or modification of records, anomalous service-accou