The Wednesday BriefingWednesday, September 23, 2026
The UAE’s SMS OTP phase-out is done. What US banks can take from it + 2 more
Wednesday, September 23, 2026. Covers September 17, 2026 to September 23, 2026.
From the editor
The UAE’s deadline for retiring SMS and email codes has passed, and NIST’s “restricted” label for SMS is a benchmark US examiners and auditors use. This week’s reading is about what each means for a US bank’s roadmap.
In this issue
New Dispatch
The UAE’s SMS OTP phase-out is done. What US banks can take from it
The Central Bank of the UAE directed banks to phase out SMS and email one-time passcodes, starting in July 2025 and finishing by March 31, 2026. Banks moved customers to in-app verification in their own mobile apps.
Route to CISOs Compliance Product & payments
New Explainer
SMS one-time passcodes are “restricted” under NIST’s new guidelines. Here’s what that means for US banks
NIST SP 800-63-4 does not ban SMS one-time passcodes. It classifies SMS and voice codes as “restricted” authenticators: still allowed, but only if the organization assesses the risk, tells users about it, offers at least one non-restricted alternative, and keeps a plan to migrate away.
Route to CISOs Compliance IAM engineers
New Explainer
Carrier-native authentication, explained: how a SIM can sign a login
Carrier-based authentication verifies a user through their mobile operator instead of sending them a code. The simplest form checks that a request comes from the SIM tied to a phone number; stronger forms use cryptographic keys held in the SIM to sign the request.
Route to IAM engineers Product & payments Security engineers
Exploited this week
8 additions to CISA’s KEV catalog, Sep 17 to Sep 23.
| CVE | Vendor and product | Vulnerability | Added | Due (federal) | Ransomware use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-94127 | F5 BIG-IP APM | F5 BIG-IP APM Heap-based Buffer Overflow VulnerabilityCISA summaryF5 BIG-IP APM contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability when access policy and an OAuth profile are configured on a virtual server. This vulnerability could allow an unauthenticated attacker to perform remote code execution. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2026-93952 | Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator | Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator Improper Input Validation VulnerabilityCISA summaryArista VeloCloud Orchestrator (VCO) on-prem contains an improper input validation vulnerability that may allow a remote attacker to access privileged internal functionality and impact the VCO host. Successful exploitation may compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the orchestrator and data managed by the orchestrator. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2026-93616 | Check Point Multiple Products | Check Point Multiple Products Path Traversal VulnerabilityCISA summaryCheck Point Security Management Server, Multi-Domain Security Management Server, Log Server, Multi-Domain Log Server, and SmartEvent contain a path traversal vulnerability that allows an unauthenticated attacker to upload and execute arbitrary scripts. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2026-85102 | Check Point Multiple Products | Check Point Multiple Products Improper Certificate Validation VulnerabilityCISA summaryCheck Point Security Gateway and Check Point Spark Firewall using Site to Site VPN or Remote Access VPN contain an improper certificate validation vulnerability which could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the Gateway. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2026-7273 | Zyxel GS1900 Series Switches | Zyxel GS1900 Series Switches Stack-Based Buffer Overflow VulnerabilityCISA summaryZyxel GS1900 series switches contain a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the CGI program which could allow a LAN-based, unauthenticated attacker to exploit the flaw and potentially execute OS commands via a crafted HTTP request. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2026-53266 | Linux Kernel | Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write VulnerabilityCISA summaryLinux Kernel contains an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the ebtables SNAT target which allows an ARP sender hardware address rewrite to write directly into a nonlinear socket-buffer fragment backed by a splice-imported file page. The impacted product(s) could be end-of-life (EoL) and/or end-of-service (EoS). Users are advised to discontinue use and/or transition to a supported version. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2025-39964 | Linux Kernel | Linux Kernel Race Condition VulnerabilityCISA summaryLinux Kernel contains a race condition vulnerability which allows concurrent writes to the same AF_ALG socket causing data to be unpredictably interleaved and creating inconsistencies in the socket's internal state. | Unknown | ||
| CVE-2025-39682 | Linux Kernel | Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions VulnerabilityCISA summaryLinux Kernel contains an improper check for unusual or exceptional conditions vulnerability in the TLS receive path which allows a zero-length record retrieved from the rx_list to bypass the intended recvmsg() record-type handling, potentially causing subsequent TLS records to be processed using incorrect zero-copy and queuing assumptions. The impacted product(s) could be end-of-life (EoL) and/or end-of-service (EoS). Users are advised to discontinue use and/or transition to a supported version. | Unknown |
Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, version 2026.09.23. Due dates apply to US federal civilian agencies; summaries are CISA’s.