Vulnerabilities
GPUStack, FreeSWITCH and Faspex hit KEV with a 3-day deadline
CISA listed four exploited flaws on November 9 and gave agencies until November 12. How GPUStack, FreeSWITCH and Faspex are attacked, and what to fix first.
On November 9, 2026 CISA added four vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog: an authentication bypass in GPUStack, the open-source GPU cluster manager used to serve AI models; a command execution flaw in the FreeSWITCH telephony server; a privilege escalation in IBM Aspera Faspex, a file transfer server; and the OpenSSH long-password bypass on Alpine Linux. US federal agencies must fix all four by November 12, three days after listing.
Under Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 26-04, CISA sets a three-day deadline when a flaw sits on publicly exposed assets, gives total control and can be exploited automatically. CISA also marked all four for forensic triage, so agencies have to check whether they were breached, not only patch. The same order of work suits anyone who runs these products.
GPUStack: a loopback address counts as the admin
CVE-2026-102895, CVSS 9.8, versions before 2.2.0. GPUStack's get_current_user function in gpustack/api/auth.py treated any request coming from a loopback address (127.0.0.1) as the built-in administrator. The setting that turns this off, force_auth_localhost, defaults to false.
An outside attacker can look like loopback in two ways. Behind a reverse proxy on the same host with proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:<port>, every remote request reaches GPUStack from 127.0.0.1, with no header and no credential. Without a proxy, the attacker sends X-GPUStack-Real-IP: 127.0.0.1 and the server believes it. Either way the result is unauthenticated admin access.
As admin, an attacker can mint persistent API keys with scope ["*"] that work from any address, read worker credentials and cloud provider secrets, and run code on worker hosts through POST /v2/inference-backends/from-yaml, which defines a custom inference backend. The GitHub advisory says the flaw was exploited against a v2.1.1 deployment, where attackers created custom backends that opened reverse shells. Javier Sixto of ulex.fr reported the attack. No source gives a start date or victim count.
Fix: GPUStack 2.2.0 removed the loopback admin path. Go straight to the current stable release, v2.3.0 (October 23), which also carries the SAML callback fix from 2.2.2 and the October authorization fixes. Until you can upgrade, set force_auth_localhost=true, strip any client-supplied X-GPUStack-Real-IP header at the proxy, and keep the API behind a VPN.
Check: list API keys and delete any ["*"] key nobody on the team created. Review custom inference backends for ones you did not add, and search proxy logs for requests carrying X-GPUStack-Real-IP. If anything turns up, rotate every cloud provider key and worker token the server held, and check worker hosts for outbound shells.
FreeSWITCH: one SIP message picks the command
CVE-2026-116779, CVSS 9.8, versions 1.11.2 and earlier. FreeSWITCH accepts SIP MESSAGE requests, the SIP method for text chat. The mod_sofia handler splits the To user of the message on + and treats the left half as the name of a chat protocol. The mod_dptools module registers a chat protocol named api, which passes the rest of the address to switch_api_execute(), the function that runs FreeSWITCH console commands.
So anyone whose MESSAGE a profile accepts chooses which API command the server runs. That reaches operating system commands as the FreeSWITCH user, configuration and credential dumps, and call control. Where mod_lua is loaded, as it is in the stock configuration, inline Lua is a second route.
Defaults make this worse. Chat is on unless a profile sets enable-chat=false, and the stock conf/vanilla configuration leaves it on for both internal and external profiles. The inbound access control list (ACL) does not apply to MESSAGE. If message authentication is on, any one registered account is enough. Installations still carrying conf/vanilla/directory/default/default.xml need no account at all, because its default user has no password and authenticates unless allow-empty-password is false. SignalWire says exploitation has been observed in the wild but gives no dates or scale.
Fix: upgrade to 1.11.3. It adds a per-profile setting, enable-chat-api-proto, which is off unless you set it, so the route closes on every profile after the upgrade. Blocked attempts get a 403 and are logged with the source and the requested command. Ask vendors of products built on FreeSWITCH, such as FusionPBX, which version they ship.
If you cannot upgrade today: set enable-chat=false on every profile that does not need inbound chat and remove directory users with no password or a1-hash. Do not count on disable_system_api_commands=true: it removes only the system command, and module loading and call origination stay reachable.
Check: search SIP traces and logs for inbound MESSAGE requests whose To user starts with api+, and for processes started by the FreeSWITCH user that your dial plan does not explain. Go back as far as retention allows. The fix shipped on August 29, two months before the advisory, so attacks may predate the public write-up.
IBM Aspera Faspex: user to administrator
CVE-2026-123218, CVSS 9.8 per IBM, Faspex 5.0.0 through 5.0.19. IBM's November 7 bulletin says an authenticated user can craft a specific message that bypasses authorization and gains full administrative rights. It gives no further technical detail. The CVSS vector IBM published says no privileges are required, which conflicts with its own description; until IBM clarifies, assume any account, including a self-registered or external one, may be enough.
Fix: install 5.0.19 PL1 (Linux) and confirm the faspex-core container image reports 5.0.19 (1ce4b13, Fix Pack: 1). IBM lists no workaround. Afterwards, compare the admin list and recent role changes against what your team approved. No public source says who is exploiting this flaw or since when.
OpenSSH on Alpine: exploited within nine hours
We covered the OpenSSH bug on November 6, when no exploitation had been reported and it had no CVE ID (our earlier post has the full mechanism). It is now CVE-2026-123158, scored 8.1 on the CVE record and 9.8 by Red Hat. It affects sshd built against the musl C library without PAM, which is Alpine's default openssh-server package. A password of 257 to 1,024 bytes logs into any account whose password field is *.
Threat intelligence firm Previdian saw its first exploitation attempt less than nine hours after the CVE was published. It counted eight attempts from one address, 89.116.89[.]18, and confirmed root access on a honeypot running real Alpine and OpenSSH; the attacker ran id, uname and hostname.
Fix: update to the fixed Alpine package for your branch (10.6_p2-r0 on edge, 10.3_p1-r2 on 3.24), then run rc-service sshd restart, because the upgrade does not replace the running daemon. Otherwise set PasswordAuthentication no. Search /var/log/messages for Accepted password for on accounts that have no password.
The fixes were out long before the listings
The GPUStack advisory was public on July 31, 101 days before the listing. FreeSWITCH 1.11.3 shipped 72 days before it, and its advisory followed on October 28. OpenSSH 10.6p2 (November 5) and the IBM bulletin (November 7) came only four and two days ahead. GPU clusters and phone systems are often run by the AI or telephony team rather than central IT, so their fixes can wait for someone outside the patch process to notice. For software like this, a KEV entry is a late signal.
Two habits help here. Keep an inventory of what can be reached from the internet, including the GPU and telephony boxes other teams stood up. And watch the GitHub security advisories of the open-source servers you run, so a critical advisory reaches whoever owns the box the same day.
Finding those forgotten hosts is where our attack surface management work starts, and our security operations team can run the compromise checks above. Open the chat and Yaali, our AI agent, will pass your question to an engineer.
Sources: CISA alert, November 9, CISA KEV catalog, BOD 26-04 implementation guidance, GPUStack advisory GHSA-gj9m-f8ph-pmhr, GPUStack releases, Daily Security Review on GPUStack, FreeSWITCH advisory GHSA-mg63-h38w-8p9p, Rescana on FreeSWITCH, IBM security bulletin 7295921, Tech Insider on the KEV batch, Alpine advisory, OpenSSH release notes, Help Net Security on exploitation, Red Hat on CVE-2026-123158.