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CVE-2026-20318

CRITICAL 9.6

Published 2026-08-19 · Last modified 2026-08-20

As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Secure Workload engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20318 are related to improper input validation issues that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) CWE-20.

ELEVATED IMPACT

Severe if exploited (CVSS 9.6), but no known exploitation and low modeled probability. Patch on a normal cadence.

Exploitation likelihood

0.3%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 18th percentile

○ In CISA KEV ○ Public exploit / PoC

Impact if exploited

9.6CVSS 3.1 · CRITICAL

  • ConfidentialityNone
  • IntegrityHigh
  • AvailabilityHigh

What an attacker needs

  • Access: Reachable over the network — no local access needed
  • Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
  • User interaction: No user interaction needed
  • Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable

✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it

Proof of concept & exploit code

Test against your own equipment

curl -s https://vulnpedia.com/cve/CVE-2026-20318/poc.jsonMachine-readable PoC index for this CVE (for automation).

Listed for defensive triage, patch verification, and authorized testing on systems you own. Machine-readable: /cve/CVE-2026-20318/poc.json

Affected

Vendors Cisco

Products Cisco Secure Workload

Weakness (CWE)

  • CWE-20: Improper Input Validation

CVSS vector

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

All CVSS metrics

  • CRITICAL 9.6 v3.1 · CNA Primary
    CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H
  • CRITICAL 9.6 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
    CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H

Sources: NVD · CVE.org · EPSS