CVE-2022-20739 Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
An authenticated low-privileged user can escalate privileges to root by injecting commands into a file executed by an admin.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2022-20739?
CVE-2022-20739 is a high-severity vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, published on 15 Apr 2022. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco SD-WAN vManage Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system as the root user. The attacker must be authenticated on the affected system as a low-privileged user to exploit this vulnerability. This vulnerability exists because a file leveraged by a root user is executed when a low-privileged user runs specific commands on an affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by injecting arbitrary commands to a specific file as a lower-privileged user and then waiting until an admin user executes specific commands. The commands would then be executed on the device by the root user. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to escalate their privileges on the affected system from a low-privileged user to the root user.
Weakness: CWE-269
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-20739?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, Cisco Sd-Wan Vmanage.
How do I fix CVE-2022-20739?
No fix has been published for CVE-2022-20739 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2022-20739 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-20739 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager
- CVE-2026-20182 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller Authentication Bypass
- CVE-2026-20127 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller and Manager Authentication Bypass
- CVE-2026-76504 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Hex Encoding
- CVE-2026-20245 Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Improper Encoding or Escaping of Output
- CVE-2022-20775 Cisco SD-WAN Path Traversal
Sources
Also known as GHSA-32vw-hmgx-hqv2.