Root Cmd Exec via CVE-2026-20199 in Cisco ThousandEyes SSL Cert Handler
CVE-2026-20199 Published on May 20, 2026
A vulnerability in the SSL certificate handling of Cisco ThousandEyes Virtual Appliance could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute commands on the underlying operating system as the root user. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An authenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading a crafted certificate to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code as the root user on the underlying operating system. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-20199 can be exploited with network 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 be low. considered to have a small impact on confidentiality and integrity and availability.
Weakness Type
What is an Injection Vulnerability?
The software constructs all or part of a command, data structure, or record using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify how it is parsed or interpreted when it is sent to a downstream component. Software has certain assumptions about what constitutes data and control respectively. It is the lack of verification of these assumptions for user-controlled input that leads to injection problems. Injection problems encompass a wide variety of issues -- all mitigated in very different ways and usually attempted in order to alter the control flow of the process. For this reason, the most effective way to discuss these weaknesses is to note the distinct features which classify them as injection weaknesses. The most important issue to note is that all injection problems share one thing in common -- i.e., they allow for the injection of control plane data into the user-controlled data plane. This means that the execution of the process may be altered by sending code in through legitimate data channels, using no other mechanism. While buffer overflows, and many other flaws, involve the use of some further issue to gain execution, injection problems need only for the data to be parsed. The most classic instantiations of this category of weakness are SQL injection and format string vulnerabilities.
CVE-2026-20199 has been classified to as an Injection vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-20199
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