Cisco Nexus Dashboard/Nexus Dashboard Insights Metadata Update path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Cisco Nexus Dashboard and Nexus Dashboard Insights. This affects an unknown part of the component Metadata Update. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-20174. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Cisco Nexus Dashboard and Nexus Dashboard Insights (affected version unknown). This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component Metadata Update. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A vulnerability in the Metadata update feature of Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to write arbitrary files to an affected system. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of the metadata update file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by crafting a metadata update file and manually uploading it to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to write arbitrary files to the underlying operating system as the root user. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials. Note: Manual uploading of metadata files is typical for Air-Gap environments but not for Cisco Intersight Cloud connected devices. However, the manual upload option exists for both deployments.

It is possible to read the advisory at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-20174 since 10/08/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. Additional levels of successful authentication are needed for exploitation. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 04/01/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1006 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Forum Software

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• Nexus Dashboard
• Nexus Dashboard Insights

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.cisco.com/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Discussion