Authenticated Local Privilege Escalation in Cisco FMC Lockdown Mode
CVE-2026-20044 Published on March 4, 2026

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Command Injection Vulnerability
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.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-20044 is exploitable with local system access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a high impact on confidentiality and integrity, and no impact on availability.

Attack Vector:
LOCAL
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
HIGH
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
HIGH
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
NONE

Weakness Type

Improper Privilege Management

The software does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-20044

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Affected Versions

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC):

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.01%
Percentile
1.44%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.