CVE-2026-20245
Actively exploited. CVE-2026-20245 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2026-06-09) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2026-20245 is indexed in GitHub PoC. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, formerly SD-WAN vSmart, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, formerly SD-WAN vManage, and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Validator , formerly SD-WAN vBond, 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 CVE-2026-20182 or CVE-2026-20127 . 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 Catalyst SD-WAN Security Advisory that was published on May 14, 2026, and verify the configuration of the edge devices. Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability. Important: To preserve possible indicators of compromise, customers should issue the request admin-tech command from each of the control components in the SD-WAN deployment before upgrading. After the admin-tech file has been collected, software should be upgraded at the earliest opportunity. Before upgrading an SD-WAN deployment to a fixed release, retain relevant logs. After upgrading, verify that the system has not been compromised by checking the logs for the indicators of compromise as documented in this advisory. If the logs show indicators of compromise and the system is confirmed to be compromised, apply
CSIRTS triage
- What
- The vulnerability allows an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root by supplying a crafted file.
- Who is affected
- Authenticated local users with netadmin privileges on the affected systems.
- Urgency
- Remediation is necessary due to the potential for privilege escalation and active exploitation.
- Action
- Apply the latest security updates from Cisco.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 98% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2026-20245 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (2)
- unknownexploitedCisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, and Catalyst SD-WAN Validator Authenticated Privile…cisco-psirt · 2026-06-12
- criticalexploitedCVE-2026-20245: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2026-06-09
External references
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[](https://www.csirts.com/cve/CVE-2026-20245)