CVE-2023-20098 Path traversal in Cisco SD-WAN vManage
An authenticated local attacker with administrative privileges can delete arbitrary files, including root-owned files, via directory traversal in CLI commands.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2023-20098?
CVE-2023-20098 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, published on 9 May 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco SDWAN vManage Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to delete arbitrary files. This vulnerability is due to improper filtering of directory traversal character sequences within system commands. An attacker with administrative privileges could exploit this vulnerability by running a system command containing directory traversal character sequences to target an arbitrary file. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to delete arbitrary files from the system, including files owned by root.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20098?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager, Cisco Sd-Wan Vmanage.
How do I fix CVE-2023-20098?
No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20098 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2023-20098 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20098 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