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CVE Record

CVE-2026-20126: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager could allow an authenticated, local attacker with low privileges to gain root privileges on the underlying operating system. This vulnerability is due to an insufficient user authentication mechanism in the REST API. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a request to the REST API of the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain root privileges on the underlying operating system.

HighCVSS 8.8Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2026-20126 affects Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager. A low-privileged authenticated attacker could abuse a REST API authentication weakness to become root on the underlying operating system. This could compromise the SD-WAN management plane and threaten network confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Executive priority

Treat as a high-priority management-plane issue. Root compromise of SD-WAN Manager can create broad operational and security impact. Prioritize inventory, access restriction, vendor guidance review, and upgrade planning once Cisco-confirmed remediations are identified.

Technical view

Cisco describes insufficient user authentication in the REST API. The CVSS 3.1 score is 8.8, with low attack complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, and high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CWE-648 is listed. The source bundle identifies many Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager versions as affected.

Likely exposure

Exposure is limited to environments running affected Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager versions where an attacker can authenticate with low privileges and reach the REST API. The provided sources do not define internet exposure requirements or fixed versions.

Exploitation context

The sources do not indicate active exploitation, and this CVE is not listed as KEV in the provided bundle. Exploitation requires authenticated low-privileged access, reducing opportunistic risk but increasing concern for insider threats and compromised accounts.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited to the CVE record and Cisco advisory reference in the source bundle. Do not assume unauthenticated exploitation or public exploit availability. Key research tasks are version mapping, REST API exposure assessment, account privilege review, and monitoring for suspicious authenticated API use.

Mitigation direction

  • Review Cisco advisory cisco-sa-sdwan-authbp-qwCX8D4v for official fixed releases or workarounds.
  • Inventory Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager versions and compare against the affected version list.
  • Restrict SD-WAN Manager administrative and REST API access to trusted management networks.
  • Review low-privileged accounts and remove unnecessary access.
  • Monitor for unusual REST API activity from authenticated users.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm whether Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager is deployed.
  • Record exact Manager software version and build identifier.
  • Compare installed versions with the affected versions in Cisco or CVE records.
  • Check whether REST API access is restricted to trusted administrators.
  • Review authentication and API logs for suspicious low-privileged account behavior.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
3

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-648: Exact CWE lookup

Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
description · low confidence lookup

Privilege behavior lookup

The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2026-20126 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
8.8 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
2Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
8.8CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H2.85.9Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

8.8High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2026-20126Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
CiscoCisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager20.1.12, 19.2.1, 18.4.4, 18.4.5, 20.1.1.1, 20.1.1, 19.3.0, 19.2.2, 19.2.099, 18.3.6, 18.3.7, 19.2.0, 18.3.8, 19.0.0, 19.1.0, 18.4.302, 18.4.303, 19.2.097, 19.2.098, 17.2.10, 18.3.6.1, 19.0.1a, 18.2.0, 18.4.3, 18.4.1, 17.2.8, 18.3.3.1, 18.4.0, 18.3.1, 17.2.6, 17.2.9, 18.3.4, 17.2.5, 18.3.1.1, 18.3.5, 18.4.0.1, 18.3.3, 17.2.7, 17.2.4, 18.3.0, 19.2.3, 18.4.501_ES, 20.3.1, 20.1.2, 19.2.929, 19.2.31, 20.3.2, 19.2.32, 20.3.2_925, 20.3.2.1, 20.3.2.1_927, 18.4.6, 20.1.2_937, 20.4.1, 20.3.2_928, 20.3.2_929, 20.4.1.0.1, 20.3.2.1_930, 19.2.4, 20.5.0.1.1, 20.4.1.1, 20.3.3, 19.2.4.0.1, 20.3.2_937, 20.3.3.1, 20.5.1, 20.1.3, 20.3.3.0.4, 20.3.3.1.2, 20.3.3.1.1, 20.4.1.2, 20.3.3.0.2, 20.4.1.1.5, 20.4.1.0.01, 20.4.1.0.02, 20.3.3.1.7, 20.3.3.1.5, 20.5.1.0.1, 20.3.3.1.10, 20.3.3.0.8, 20.4.2, 20.4.2.0.1, 20.3.4, 20.3.3.0.14, 19.2.4.0.8, 19.2.4.0.9, 20.3.4.0.1, 20.3.2.0.5, 20.6.1, 20.5.1.0.2, 20.3.3.0.17, 20.6.1.1, 20.6.0.18.3, 20.3.2.0.6, 20.6.0.18.4, 20.4.2.0.2, 20.3.3.0.16, 20.3.4.0.5, 20.6.1.0.1, 20.3.4.0.6, 20.6.2, 20.7.1EFT2, 20.3.4.0.9, 20.3.4.0.11, 20.4.2.0.4, 20.3.3.0.18, 20.7.1, 20.6.2.1, 20.3.4.1, 20.5.1.1, 20.4.2.1, 20.4.2.1.1, 20.3.4.1.1, 20.3.813, 20.3.4.0.19, 20.4.2.2.1, 20.5.1.2, 20.3.4.2, 20.3.814, 20.4.2.2, 20.6.2.2, 20.3.4.2.1, 20.7.1.1, 20.3.4.1.2, 20.6.2.2.2, 20.3.4.0.20, 20.6.2.2.3, 20.4.2.2.2, 20.3.5, 20.6.2.0.4, 20.4.2.2.3, 20.3.4.0.24, 20.6.2.2.7, 20.6.3, 20.3.4.2.2, 20.4.2.2.4, 20.7.1.0.2, 20.8.1, 20.3.5.0.8, 20.3.5.0.9, 20.4.2.2.8, 20.3.5.0.7, 20.6.3.0.7, 20.6.3.0.5, 20.6.3.0.10, 20.6.3.0.2, 20.7.2, 20.9.1EFT2, 20.6.3.0.11, 20.6.3.1, 20.6.3.0.14, 20.6.4, 20.9.1, 20.6.3.0.19, 20.6.3.0.18, 20.3.6, 20.9.1.1, 20.6.3.0.23, 20.6.4.0.4, 20.6.3.0.25, 20.6.5, 20.6.3.0.27, 20.9.2, 20.9.2.1, 20.6.3.0.29, 20.6.3.0.31, 20.6.3.0.32, 20.10.1, 20.6.3.0.33, 20.9.2.0.01, 20.9.1_LI_Images, 20.10.1_LI_Images, 20.9.2_LI_Images, 20.3.7, 20.9.3, 20.6.5.1, 20.11.1, 20.11.1_LI_Images, 20.9.3_LI_ Images, 20.6.3.1.1, 20.9.3.0.2, 20.6.5.1.2, 20.9.3.0.3, 20.4.2.3, 20.6.3.2, 20.6.4.1, 20.6.3.0.38, 20.6.3.0.39, 20.3.5.1, 20.3.4.3, 20.9.3.1, 20.3.3.2, 20.6.5.2, 20.3.7.1, 20.10.1.1, 20.6.5.2.1, 20.3.4.0.25, 20.6.2.2.4, 20.6.1.2, 20.11.1.1, 20.9.3.0.5, 20.3.4.0.26, 20.6.5.1.3, 20.6.3.0.40, 20.1.3.1, 20.9.2.2, 20.6.5.2.3, 20.6.5.1.4, 20.6.5.3, 20.6.3.0.41, 20.9.3.0.7, 20.6.5.1.5, 20.9.3.0.4, 20.6.4.0.19, 20.6.5.1.6, 20.9.3.0.8, 20.6.3.3, 20.3.7.2, 20.6.5.4, 20.6.5.1.7, 20.9.3.0.12, 20.6.4.2, 20.6.5.5, 20.9.3.2, 20.11.1.2, 20.6.3.4, 20.10.1.2, 20.6.5.1.9, 20.9.3.0.16, 20.6.3.0.45, 20.6.5.1.10, 20.9.3.0.17, 20.6.5.2.4, 20.6.4.0.21, 20.9.3.0.18, 20.6.3.0.46, 20.6.3.0.47, 20.9.2.3, 20.9.3.2_LI_Images, 20.9.3.0.21, 20.9.3.0.20, 20.9.4_LI_Images, 20.9.4, 20.6.5.1.11, 20.12.1, 20.12.1_LI_Images, 20.6.5.1.13, 20.9.3.0.23, 20.6.5.2.8, 20.9.4.1, 20.9.4.1_LI_Images, 20.9.3.0.25, 20.9.3.0.24, 20.6.5.1.14, 20.3.8, 20.6.6, 20.9.3.0.26, 20.6.3.0.51, 20.9.3.0.29, 20.12.2, 20.12.2_LI_Images, 20.6.6.0.1, 20.13.1_LI_Images, 20.9.4.0.4, 20.13.1, 20.9.4.1.1, 20.9.5, 20.9.5_LI_Images, 20.12.3_LI_Images, 20.12.3, 20.9.4.1.3, 20.6.7, 20.9.5.1, 20.9.5.1_LI_Images, 20.9.4.1.6, 20.14.1, 20.14.1_LI_Images, 20.9.5.2, 20.9.5.2.1, 20.9.5.2_LI_Images, 20.12.3.1, 20.12.4, 20.15.1_LI_Images, 20.15.1, 20.9.5.1.4, 20.9.5.2.7, 20.9.5.2.13, 20.9.6, 20.9.6_LI_Images, 20.9.5.2.14, 20.6.8, 20.12.4.0.03, 20.16.1, 20.16.1_LI_Images, 20.12.4_LI_Images, 20.9.5.2.16, 20.12.4.0.4, 20.12.401, 20.9.5.3, 20.9.5.3_LI_Images, 20.12.4.1_LI_Images, 20.12.4.1, 20.9.5.2.21, 20.9.6.0.3, 20.12.4.0.6, 20.15.2_LI_Images, 20.15.2, 20.12.4_Monthly_ES5, 20.12.5, 20.12.5_LI_Images, 20.9.7_LI _Images, 20.9.7, 20.15.3, 20.15.3_ LI _Images, 20.12.501, 20.12.5.1_LI_Images, 20.12.5.1, 20.12.5.2_LI_Images, 20.12.5.2, 20.15.3.1, 20.15.4_LI_Images, 20.15.4, 20.9.7.1_LI _Images, 20.9.7.1, 20.18.1, 20.18.1_LI_Images, 20.12.6_LI_Images, 20.12.6, 20.12.5.1.01, 20.9.8, 20.9.8_LI_Images, 20.18.2, 20.15.4.1_LI_Images, 20.15.4.1, 20.18.2_LI_Imagesunknown
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-648

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.