CVE-2026-20016 Command injection in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software
An authenticated local attacker with admin credentials can execute arbitrary commands with root privileges via insufficient input validation in the CLI.
- 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-2026-20016?
CVE-2026-20016 is a medium-severity command injection vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, published on 4 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the Cisco FXOS Software CLI feature for Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Software and Secure FTD Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with root-level privileges. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of user-supplied command arguments. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting crafted input for specific CLI commands. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands on the underlying operating system with root-level privileges.
Weakness: CWE-88
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20016?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense.
How do I fix CVE-2026-20016?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20016 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is CVE-2026-20016 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20016 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
- CVE-2025-20333 Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2016-6366 Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SNMP Buffer Overflow
- CVE-2026-20349 Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Heap Inspection
- CVE-2024-20353 Cisco ASA and FTD Denial of Service
- CVE-2016-6367 Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) CLI Remote Code Execution
All Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software vulnerabilities
Sources
Also known as GHSA-f74q-99mf-mmj8.