China-Linked APT UAT-9686 Exploiting Maximum-Severity Cisco Zero-Day

A China-nexus APT codenamed UAT-9686 is exploiting a maximum-severity zero-day in Cisco AsyncOS email security appliances. Separately, UAT-8616 continues to target Catalyst SD-WAN systems. CISA added both Google Chrome zero-days (exploited in the wild since early 2026) to the KEV catalog, requiring FCEB agencies to patch by March 27.