cisco-sa-sdwan-privesc-4uxFrdzx: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, and Catalyst SD-WAN Validator Authenticated Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

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, applying the software update alone will not resolve the vulnerability. In such cases, follow the specific remediation steps that will be provided by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to help secure the system.Live Protect ShieldCisco has released a Live Protect shield for CVE-2026-20245 to provide temporary security coverage to allow time for software upgrade planning, including preserving any information that customers may require for governance or compliance purposes.This shield offers only temporary partial protection. The only way to remediate this vulnerability is to upgrade to the first fixed software release, as noted in the Fixed Releases section of this advisory. Cisco strongly recommends prioritizing system upgrades and scheduling them as soon as possible to ensure remediation.Before deploying the shield, read the following information:Before deploying this shield, set up disaster recovery operations, which have been tested to continue to operate. The new SD-WAN Disaster Recovery operations will not succeed after deployment of this shield. For more information, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/sdwan/configuration/ha-scaling/ios-xe-17/high-availability-book-xe/m-disaster-recovery.html.Before deploying this shield, establish any needed SD-WAN Manager clusters because these have been tested to continue to operate. Expanded and newly created SD-WAN Manager clusters will not succeed after deployment of this shield. For more information, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/sdwan/configuration/sdwan-xe-gs-book/manage-cluster.html.For more information about Live Protect for Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/sdwan/26x-later/network-monitoring/network-monitoring-guide/live-protect-for-cisco-catalyst-sd-wan.html.This advisory is available at the following link:https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sdwan-privesc-4uxFrdzx