Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the vmadmin CLI of Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied commands. An attacker with vmadmin privileges could exploit this vulnerability by using certain commands at the CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root. Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability. This advisory is available at the following link: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-umbrella-priv-esc-F4wJB7AU Security Impact Rating: Medium CVE: CVE-2026-20246
CSIRTS triage
- What
- A privilege escalation vulnerability could allow an authenticated attacker to elevate privileges on the device.
- Who is affected
- Authenticated users with vmadmin privileges on the Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance.
- Urgency
- Remediation is urgent due to the potential for privilege escalation to root.
- Action
- Users should apply the software updates released by Cisco.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Details
Exploitation outlook
EPSS (FIRST.org) estimates each CVE’s probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — here is the CSIRTS.com read on those numbers.
- Low exploitation riskCVE-2026-202460.10% 30-day exploitation probability — currently an unlikely target, but scores change as exploit code circulates. Riskier than 1% of all scored CVEs.
Referenced CVEs
| CVE | CSIRTS overview | External |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-20246 | coverage & exploitation status | NVD · CVE.org |
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