VulnerabilityPublished 4 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-20044: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) · Improper Privilege Management

Affects Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC)Source CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.0 Medium.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 06:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.0Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 3% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Mar 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 29 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
CiscoCisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC)	Affected 6.4.0 – 7.7.10.1 78 affected builds	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should immediately verify and restrict administrative access to Cisco FMC systems, ensuring only trusted and trained personnel have such privileges. Implement strong multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all administrative accounts to reduce the risk of credential compromise. Monitor and audit all administrative activities on FMC for unusual or unauthorized commands. Cisco should be consulted for any available patches or updates addressing this vulnerability; applying these patches promptly is the most effective mitigation. If patches are not yet available, consider isolating FMC management interfaces from general network access, limiting access to secure management networks only. Employ network segmentation and strict firewall rules to reduce exposure of FMC devices. Regularly review and harden FMC lockdown configurations and remediation module settings to minimize the attack surface. Additionally, maintain comprehensive logging and alerting to detect potential exploitation attempts early. Finally, conduct periodic security assessments and penetration tests focusing on FMC to identify and remediate privilege escalation risks proactively.

Description

A vulnerability in the lockdown mechanism of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to perform arbitrary commands as root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient restrictions on remediation modules while in lockdown mode. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted input to the system CLI of the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to run arbitrary commands or code as root, even when the system is in lockdown mode. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials.

Impact

The impact of CVE-2026-20044 is substantial for organizations relying on Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for centralized firewall management and security policy enforcement. An attacker exploiting this vulnerability can gain root-level command execution on the FMC device, effectively taking full control of the management system. This can lead to unauthorized changes in firewall policies, disabling or bypassing security controls, and potentially allowing lateral movement within the network. Confidential data managed or logged by FMC could be exposed or altered, undermining network security monitoring and incident response capabilities. Since FMC often controls multiple firewalls and security devices, compromise of FMC can cascade into broader network security failures. The requirement for administrative credentials limits exploitation to insiders or attackers who have already breached initial defenses, but the ease of privilege escalation once inside increases the risk of severe damage. The vulnerability does not affect availability directly but compromises confidentiality and integrity critically. Organizations in sectors with high security demands, such as government, finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure, face elevated risks due to the strategic importance of FMC in their security architecture.

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-fmc-cmd-inject-S9ZM4EJf (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 11 Mar 2026, 19:51 UTC

Technical details

References

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