What is CVE-2026-20245?
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 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.
The record classifies CVE-2026-20245 under weakness class CWE-116. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 2 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 123 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 7.8 — HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - EPSS (FIRST)
- 9.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94.9% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Listed since 2026-06-09, federal remediation deadline 2026-06-23
- Threadlinqs priority
- 9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
- Published
- 2026-06-04, last modified 2026-06-12
Is CVE-2026-20245 being exploited?
CISA added CVE-2026-20245 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-06-09, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2026-06-23 under BOD 22-01. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2026-20245 is publicly available. 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 65 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
Affected products and versions
- Cisco: Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, Catalyst SD-WAN Manager
How to fix CVE-2026-20245
Vendor advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sdwan-privesc-4uxFrdzx. Because CVE-2026-20245 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2026-06-23. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-20245
3 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2026-20245, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Zero-Day Exploitation Chain (CVE-2026-20245, CVE-2026-20127, CVE-2026-20182) — CRITICAL · 2026-07-02
- Active Exploitation of Cisco Unified Communications Manager WebDialer SSRF (CVE-2026-20230) and Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Root Privilege-Escalation Zero-Day (CVE-2026-20245) — CRITICAL · 2026-07-01
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager CVE-2026-20245 — Actively Exploited 0-Day: Authenticated File-Upload Command Injection to Root — HIGH · 2026-06-06
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, NVD, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, GitHub Security Advisories, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on . This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.