CVE-2026-20245
HIGH · 7.8 KEV EPSS 9.9%KEV-listed, Mandiant confirmed exploitation, months-long active abuse pre-disclosure, patch available but deadline passed.
What: Command injection in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager CLI via crafted file upload allows authenticated local attackers to execute arbitrary commands and escalate to root (CVSS 7.8, EPSS 0.09922).
Why it matters: KEV-listed as of June 9. Mandiant confirmed in-the-wild exploitation beginning ~March 2026 (two months pre-disclosure). Attackers escalated from admin SSH to root via malicious CSV upload, pushed config changes to edge devices, and erased tracks. Cisco released patch May 14; CISA patch deadline already passed as of post dates.
Where it's seen: Mandiant threat intelligence reports, DFIR analyst posts, security news aggregators emphasizing "zero-day exploited for months." Defender chatter confirms triage activity on internet-reachable SD-WAN controllers.
RISK: CRITICAL — Active in-the-wild exploitation, root access achieved, config tampering on edge devices, KEV-listed.
Description
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, formerly SD-WAN vManage, could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root by supplying a crafted file to the affected system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading a crafted file to the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to perform command injection attacks on an affected system and elevate their privileges as the root user. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have netadmin privileges on the affected system. This would require valid credentials or exploitation of or . Cisco is not aware of successful exploitation by other methods. Cisco has observed limited cases where the exploitation of this bug resulted in a configuration change pushed to edge devices. Cisco recommends that customers upgrade to the fixed software that is documented in the that was published on May 14, 2026, and verify the configuration of the edge devices.
CVSS 3.1 breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High