# CVE-2026-20044: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Command Injection Vulnerability

> An authenticated local attacker with admin credentials can execute arbitrary commands as root by bypassing lockdown mode restrictions in Cisco FMC.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Mar 2026
- **Updated:** 5 Mar 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-924w-xj2p-25w9

## What is CVE-2026-20044?

CVE-2026-20044 is a medium-severity command injection vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, 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 lockdown mechanism of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to perform arbitrary commands as root.

This vulnerability is due to insufficient restrictions on remediation modules while in lockdown mode. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted input to the system CLI of the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to run arbitrary commands or code as root, even when the system is in lockdown mode. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20044?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-20044?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20044 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-20044 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20044 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

- [CVE-2026-20079](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20079/): Cisco Firewall Management Center Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20131](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20131/): Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software and Cisco Security Cloud Control (SCC) Firewall Management Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-20316](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20316/): Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Use of Hard-coded Password (medium 5.3, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-20265](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20265/): Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Software Radius Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2024-20424](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-20424/): Command injection in Cisco Firepower Management Center (critical 9.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-20044 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-20044 is a medium-severity command injection vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, published on 4 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20044 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. 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-2026-20044/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20044/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-20044
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20044
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20044

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20044/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.