As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco IOS XE Software engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20272 are related to issues with improper neutralization of special elements that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-74.
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco IOS XE Software engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20267 are related to improper access control issues that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-284.
A vulnerability in the Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) feature of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to bypass command authorization and copy files to or from the file system of an affected device using the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP). This vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of SCP commands in AAA command authorization checks. An attacker with valid credentials and level 15 privileges could exploit this vulnerability by using SCP to connect to an affected device from an external machine. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain or change the configuration of the affected device and put files on or retrieve files from the affected device.
A vulnerability in the Web Services Management Agent (WSMA) function of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary Cisco IOS commands as a privilege level 15 user. The vulnerability occurs because the affected software improperly sanitizes user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted HTTP requests to the targeted application. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the affected device.
A vulnerability in the web UI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated but unprivileged (level 1), remote attacker to run privileged Cisco IOS commands by using the web UI. The vulnerability is due to a failure to validate and sanitize input in Web Services Management Agent (WSMA) functions. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a malicious payload to the affected device's web UI. A successful exploit could allow the lower-privileged attacker to execute arbitrary commands with higher privileges on the affected device.
A vulnerability in the authorization subsystem of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated but unprivileged (level 1), remote attacker to run privileged Cisco IOS commands by using the web UI. The vulnerability is due to improper validation of user privileges of web UI users. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a malicious payload to a specific endpoint in the web UI. A successful exploit could allow the lower-privileged attacker to execute arbitrary commands with higher privileges on the affected device.
A vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute commands on the underlying Linux shell of an affected device with root privileges. The vulnerability occurs because the affected software improperly sanitizes user-supplied input. An attacker who has valid administrator access to an affected device could exploit this vulnerability by supplying a username with a malicious payload in the web UI and subsequently making a request to a specific endpoint in the web UI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to run arbitrary commands as the root user, allowing complete compromise of the system.
A vulnerability in the web UI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with administrative privileges to execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the underlying Linux shell. The vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by first creating a malicious file on the affected device itself and then uploading a second malicious file to the device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges or bypass licensing requirements on the device.
A vulnerability in the web UI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject and execute arbitrary commands with administrative privileges on the underlying operating system of an affected device. The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input to the web UI. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted input to the web UI. A successful exploit could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands with administrative privileges on an affected device.
A vulnerability in the authorization controls for the Cisco IOx application hosting infrastructure in Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute Cisco IOx API commands without proper authorization. The vulnerability is due to incorrect handling of requests for authorization tokens. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using a crafted API call to request such a token. An exploit could allow the attacker to obtain an authorization token and execute any of the IOx API commands on an affected device.
A vulnerability in Role Based Access Control (RBAC) functionality of Cisco IOS XE Web Management Software could allow a Read-Only authenticated, remote attacker to execute commands or configuration changes as an Admin user. The vulnerability is due to incorrect handling of RBAC for the administration GUI. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a modified HTTP request to the affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker as a Read-Only user to execute CLI commands or configuration changes as if they were an Admin user.
A vulnerability in the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) function of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass NETCONF or RESTCONF authentication and do either of the following: Install, manipulate, or delete the configuration of an affected device Cause memory corruption that results in a denial of service (DoS) on an affected device This vulnerability is due to an uninitialized variable. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a series of NETCONF or RESTCONF requests to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to use NETCONF or RESTCONF to install, manipulate, or delete the configuration of a network device or to corrupt memory on the device, resulting a DoS.
A vulnerability in the Central Web Authentication (CWA) feature of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless Controllers could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to bypass the pre-authentication access control list (ACL), which could allow access to network resources before user authentication. This vulnerability is due to a logic error when activating the pre-authentication ACL that is received from the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by connecting to a wireless network that is configured for CWA and sending traffic through an affected device that should be denied by the configured ACL before user authentication. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass configured ACL protections on the affected device before the user authentication is completed, allowing the attacker to access trusted networks that the device might be protecting.
Multiple vulnerabilities in the Cisco IOx application hosting environment on multiple Cisco platforms could allow an attacker to inject arbitrary commands into the underlying host operating system, execute arbitrary code on the underlying host operating system, install applications without being authenticated, or conduct a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against a user of the affected software. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.