An unknown threat actor exploited a recently disclosed high-severity security flaw impacting Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN as a zero-day at least two months before it was publicly disclosed, according to new findings from Google-owned Mandiant. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-20245 (CVSS score: 7.8), allows an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands with elevated privileges

New details have been revealed on how hackers exploited a Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-20245 in zero-day attacks to create rogue root accounts on targeted devices. [...]

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday added three new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, following reports of active exploitation. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2026-20245 (CVSS score: 7.8) - An improper encoding or escaping of output vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager that could allow an

CISA has added three new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog , based on evidence of active exploitation. CVE-2026-7473 Arista Extensible Operating System Incomplete Comparison with Missing Factors Vulnerability CVE-2026-11645 Google Chromium V8 Out-of-Bounds Read and Write Vulnerability CVE-2026-20245 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output Vulnerability These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise. Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities established the KEV Catalog as a living list of known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) that carry significant risk to the federal enterprise. BOD 22-01 requires Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to remediate identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect FCEB networks against active threats. See the BOD 22-01 Fact Sheet for more information. Although BOD 22-01 only applies to FCEB agencies, CISA strongly urges all organizations to reduce their exposure to cyberattacks by prioritizing timely remediation of KEV Catalog vulnerabilities as part of their vulnerability management practice. CISA will continue to add vulnerabilities to the catalog that meet the specified criteria . 

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager formerly SD-WAN vManage contains an improper encoding or escaping of output vulnerability. This vulnerability could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root by supplying a crafted file to the affected system.

Cisco has warned that a high-severity security flaw impacting Catalyst SD-WAN Manager has come under active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-20245, carries a CVSS score of 7.8 out of a maximum of 10.0. It affects the following deployment types - On-Prem Deployment Cisco SD-WAN Cloud-Pro Cisco SD-WAN Cloud (Cisco Managed) Cisco SD-WAN for Government (FedRAMP) "A

Cisco warns of CVE-2026-20245 in SD-WAN Manager, a flaw that can lead to root access via file upload command injection; no patch or workaround yet. Cisco warns of a privilege escalation flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20245 (CVSS base score of 7.8), in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, the platform formerly known as SD-WAN vManage. An authenticated local […]

A 0-day privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2026-20245) in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager that has yet to be patched by Cisco is being leveraged by attackers. “To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must have netadmin privileges on an 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,” the company shared on Thursday. It also said that it has observed “limited cases where the … More → The post Cisco SD-WAN 0-day exploited, no patch available (CVE-2026-20245) appeared first on Help Net Security .

On Thursday, Cisco warned of a high-severity, unpatched zero-day in the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager (tracked as CVE-2026-20245) actively exploited in attacks enabling root privilege escalation. [...]

Cisco has patched yet another Catalyst SD-WAN Controller authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2026-20182) that has been exploited as a zero-day by “a highly sophisticated cyber threat actor”. About CVE-2026-20182 CVE-2026-20182 – affecting both Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller (the “brain” of the Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN solution) and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager (the management plane for the entire SD-WAN fabric) – stems from a flawed peering authentication mechanism. It affects both on-prem and cloud deployments. CVE-2026-20182 was reported … More → The post Cisco patches another actively exploited SD-WAN zero-day (CVE-2026-20182) appeared first on Help Net Security .

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller & Manager contain an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and obtain administrative privileges on an affected system.

The maximum-severity vulnerability CVE-2026-20127 was exploited by an unknown but sophisticated threat actor who left very little evidence behind.