Cisco IOS XR Improper Neutralization (CWE-707) Vulnerability
CVE-2026-20278 Published on September 2, 2026

Cisco IOS XR Software Security Hardening Release: September 2026
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco IOS XR Software engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20278 are related to improper neutralization issues that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) CWE-707.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-20278 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 very high.

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

Weakness Type

Improper Neutralization

The product does not ensure or incorrectly ensures that structured messages or data are well-formed and that certain security properties are met before being read from an upstream component or sent to a downstream component.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-20278

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Affected Versions

Cisco IOS XR Software: