# CVE-2026-20246: Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

> An authenticated local attacker with vmadmin privileges can elevate to root via insufficient command validation in the CLI.

- **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:** 17 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 17 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4vh2-x3qw-x2qc

## What is CVE-2026-20246?

CVE-2026-20246 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Umbrella Insights Virtual Appliance, published on 17 Jun 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 vmadmin CLI of Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device.

This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied commands. An attacker with vmadmin privileges could exploit this vulnerability by using certain commands at the CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root.

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20246?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-20246?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20246 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-20246 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20246 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Umbrella Insights Virtual Appliance

- [CVE-2017-12350](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12350/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco Umbrella Insights Virtual Appliance (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2022-20773](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-20773/): Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance Static SSH Host Key Vulnerability (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2017-6679](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-6679/): Security feature bypass in Cisco Umbrella Virtual Appliance Version 2.0.3 and prior (medium 6.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-20246 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-20246 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Cisco Umbrella Insights Virtual Appliance, published on 17 Jun 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-2026-20246 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Umbrella Insights Virtual Appliance. 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-2026-20246/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20246/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-20246
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20246
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20246

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20246/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.