Check Point links VPN zero-day attacks to Qilin ransomware gang
Check Point links VPN zero-day attacks to Qilin ransomware gang
Publish Date: 2026-06-08 09:05:00
Source Domain: www.bleepingcomputer.com
Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point has released security updates to patch a critical flaw affecting Remote Access VPN and Mobile Access deployments, which was exploited in zero-day attacks.
Tracked as CVE-2026-50751, this vulnerability can be exploited by unauthenticated, remote attackers to bypass authentication on targeted Mobile Access / SSL VPNs, Remote Access VPNs, or Spark firewalls and establish a remote access VPN connection.
According to the company, this security flaw affects only deployments configured to use the deprecated IKEv1 key exchange protocol, with security gateways that accept legacy Remote Access clients and do not require a machine certificate for connections.
The attacks began on May 7, surged in early June, and have affected only “a few dozen” organizations worldwide, with at least one incident linked to the Qilin ransomware operation.
“Check Point Research has identified active exploitation of CVE-2026-50751, a critical authentication bypass vulnerability affecting Check Point Remote Access VPN and Mobile Access deployments configured to use the deprecated IKEv1 key exchange protocol,” the company warned.
“To date, the observed exploitation has been limited to a few dozen targeted organizations globally. One case involved confirmed post-compromise activity associated with Qilin ransomware affiliate. Customers using IKEv1 key exchange protocol are strongly encouraged to apply the available security updates immediately.”
Check Point also shared mitigation measures for customers who can’t immediately patch vulnerable systems and advised them to remove support for the legacy remote access client, configure global properties for Remote Access VPN Authentication to IKEv2 only, set the Machine Certificate Authentication as mandatory, and enable IPS and download the signatures.
While investigating the CVE-2026-50751 flaw, Check Point found a second vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2026-50752) that affects…
