# CVE-2026-20114: Privilege escalation in Cisco IOS XE Software

> Authenticated attackers can escalate privileges to access restricted management APIs and create new users with elevated access on Cisco IOS XE devices.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 25 Mar 2026
- **Updated:** 25 Mar 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-3855-fjjh-9xh2

## What is CVE-2026-20114?

CVE-2026-20114 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software, published on 25 Mar 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the Lobby Ambassador web-based management API of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate their privileges and access management APIs that would not normally be available for Lobby Ambassador users. 

 This vulnerability exists because parameters that are received by an API endpoint are not sufficiently validated. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating as a Lobby Ambassador user and sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to create a new user with privilege level 1 access to the web-based management API. The attacker would then be able to access the device with these new credentials and privileges.

Weakness: CWE-1286 (Improper Validation of Syntactic Correctness of Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20114?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-20114?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20114 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-20114 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20114 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-20114 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-20114 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software, published on 25 Mar 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20114 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco IOS XE Software. 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-2026-20114/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20114/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-20114
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20114
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20114

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20114/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.