Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager DCA Privilege Escalation before 20.18
CVE-2026-20128 Published on February 25, 2026

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the Data Collection Agent (DCA) feature of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain DCA user privileges on an affected system. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid vmanage credentials on the affected system. This vulnerability is due to the presence of a credential file for the DCA user on an affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by accessing the filesystem as a low-privileged user and reading the file that contains the DCA password from that affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access another affected system and gain DCA user privileges. Note: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager releases 20.18 and later are not affected by this vulnerability.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-20128 is exploitable with local system access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to be very high.

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

Weakness Type

Storing Passwords in a Recoverable Format

The storage of passwords in a recoverable format makes them subject to password reuse attacks by malicious users. In fact, it should be noted that recoverable encrypted passwords provide no significant benefit over plaintext passwords since they are subject not only to reuse by malicious attackers but also by malicious insiders. If a system administrator can recover a password directly, or use a brute force search on the available information, the administrator can use the password on other accounts.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-20128

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Cisco Catalyst Sd Wan Manager
 

Affected Versions

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.02%
Percentile
4.53%

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.