CVE-2026-20200 in Unified Computing System
Summary
by MITRE • 08/05/2026
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco IMC could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with low privileges to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system of an affected system and elevate privileges to root.
This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by entering crafted inputs to the web-based management interface of the affected software. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system as the root user.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/05/2026
This vulnerability exists within Cisco's Integrated Management Controller web-based management interface, representing a critical security flaw that enables authenticated remote code execution with privilege escalation capabilities. The issue stems from inadequate input validation mechanisms that fail to properly sanitize or filter user-supplied data submitted through the web interface. Attackers with low-privilege accounts can leverage this weakness to bypass authentication controls and execute malicious commands on the underlying operating system with root-level privileges, effectively compromising the entire system.
The technical exploitation occurs through crafted input manipulation within the web-based management interface, where the system fails to adequately validate or sanitize user-provided parameters. This improper input validation creates a command injection vulnerability that allows attackers to submit malicious payloads which are then executed with elevated privileges. The vulnerability specifically affects Cisco IMC implementations and demonstrates a classic path traversal and privilege escalation attack vector that enables attackers to gain complete system control.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability represents a severe threat to enterprise security infrastructure as it allows attackers to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges on affected systems. The ability to elevate from low-privilege user accounts to root access provides attackers with unrestricted access to all system resources, potentially enabling data exfiltration, system modification, or deployment of additional malware. This vulnerability undermines the fundamental security model of the management interface and could lead to complete system compromise.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying Cisco's official security patches and updates, implementing network segmentation to limit access to management interfaces, and deploying monitoring solutions to detect suspicious activities within the management infrastructure. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation) and represents a significant risk under ATT&CK framework category T1059 (Command and Scripting Interpreter) and T1548 (Abuse Elevation Control Mechanisms). Additional defensive measures should include restricting web interface access to trusted IP addresses, implementing multi-factor authentication for management access, and conducting regular security assessments of management interfaces to identify similar vulnerabilities.