Cisco Crosswork NC: Auth Cmd Exec via Web Template
CVE-2026-20220 Published on June 17, 2026

Cisco Crosswork Network Controller Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Crosswork Network Controller could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation in the configuration template engine of the web-based management interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system in limited areas of the file system. This vulnerability affects only areas of the operating system for which the template user has write permissions.  To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid template user credentials with write permissions. Template users with read permissions cannot exploit this vulnerability. 

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-20220 is exploitable with network access, and requires small amount of 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.

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

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-2026-20220 has been classified to as an Injection vulnerability or weakness.


Affected Versions

Cisco Crosswork Network Change Automation: