VulnerabilityPublished 4 Mar 2026

CVE-2026-20063: Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software · Argument Injection

Affects Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) SoftwareSource 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: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% 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/E:X/RL:X/RC:X

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 Threat Defense (FTD) Software	Affected 7.6.0 – 7.7.10.1 7 affected builds	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2026-20063, organizations should immediately restrict administrative CLI access to trusted personnel and enforce strong authentication and authorization controls. Network segmentation and access controls should limit local access to Cisco Secure FTD devices. Monitoring and logging of CLI commands can help detect suspicious activity. Until Cisco releases patches, administrators should avoid executing untrusted commands or scripts on affected devices. Implementing multi-factor authentication for administrative access can reduce risk of credential compromise. Regularly auditing user accounts and privileges on FTD devices will help minimize the number of users with high-level access. Once available, promptly apply Cisco’s security updates addressing this vulnerability. Additionally, consider deploying host-based intrusion detection systems on management stations to detect anomalous command injection attempts. Document and rehearse incident response procedures for potential device compromise scenarios.

Description

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Secure FTD Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system as root. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of user-supplied command arguments. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted input for a specific CLI command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands on the underlying operating system as root.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2026-20063 is the potential for an attacker with administrative CLI access to execute arbitrary commands as root on Cisco Secure FTD devices. This could lead to full system compromise, including unauthorized access to sensitive firewall configurations, interception or manipulation of network traffic, disruption of firewall operations, and potential pivoting to other internal systems. Confidentiality and integrity are highly impacted since the attacker can alter firewall rules or extract sensitive data. Availability impact is limited as the vulnerability does not inherently allow denial of service, but malicious commands could be crafted to disrupt service. Organizations relying on Cisco Secure FTD for perimeter security or internal segmentation could face significant risk if this vulnerability is exploited, especially in environments where administrative access controls are lax or insider threats exist. The requirement for local, privileged access limits the scope but does not eliminate risk in large or distributed networks where multiple administrators or contractors have CLI access.

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ftd-cmd-inj-mTzGZexf (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 11 Mar 2026, 19:58 UTC

Technical details

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