# CVE-2023-20266: Privilege escalation in Cisco Emergency Responder

> Authenticated remote attackers with admin credentials can elevate privileges to root by providing a crafted upgrade file in Cisco Unified Communications products.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 30 Aug 2023
- **Updated:** 1 Jul 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4hj2-qwwr-pxg3

## What is CVE-2023-20266?

CVE-2023-20266 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, published on 30 Aug 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in Cisco Emergency Responder, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME), and Cisco Unity Connection could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate privileges to root on an affected device.

 This vulnerability exists because the application does not properly restrict the files that are being used for upgrades. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by providing a crafted upgrade file. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid platform administrator credentials on an affected device.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), CWE-347 (Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20266?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Cisco Emergency Responder, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connection.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-20266?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20266 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-20266 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20266 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Unified Communications Manager

- [CVE-2008-1154](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-1154/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2023-20101](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20101/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco Emergency Responder (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-12337](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12337/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco Voice Operating System (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2016-6468](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-6468/): Cross-site request forgery in Cisco Emergency Responder (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-20259](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20259/): Denial of service in Cisco Emergency Responder (high 8.6)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-20266 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-20266 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, published on 30 Aug 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20266 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Unified Communications Manager. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20266/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20266/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-20266
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20266
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-20266

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20266/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.