CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-20291NVD status: Awaiting Analysis

Cisco Cyber Vision: Improper Privilege Management

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-20291 is a high-severity improper privilege management vulnerability in Cisco Cyber Vision from Cisco, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 out of 10. It can be exploited with local access to the system by an attacker with a low-privileged account, without any action from a user. Affected Cisco Cyber Vision versions: 3.0.0; 3.0.2; 3.0.3, and others listed below. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.16% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of Cisco Cyber Vision you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
CiscoCisco Cyber Vision3.0.0; 3.0.2; 3.0.3; 3.0.1; 3.1.0; 3.0.4; 3.1.1; 3.1.2; and 32 more rangesNot stated
CiscoCisco Open Source Snort33.12.2.0; 3.1.2.0; 3.1.3.0; 3.1.4.0; 3.1.5.0; 3.1.6.0; 3.1.7.0; 3.1.8.0; and 32 more rangesNot stated
CiscoCisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software7.0.0; 7.0.0.1; 7.0.1; 7.0.1.1; 7.0.2; 7.2.0; 7.0.2.1; 7.0.3; and 32 more rangesNot stated
CiscoCisco UTD SNORT IPS Engine Software17.12.1a; 17.12.2; 17.13.1a; 17.12.3; 17.14.1a; 17.12.4; 17.12.3a; 17.15.1a; and 30 more rangesNot stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
LocalThe attacker needs local access or must trick a user into running something.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
NoneNo action by a victim is required.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
HighThe component can be taken down completely.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. Scored by CNA (cisco.com).

Official description

As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco owned Open Source Snort 3 Software engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20291 are related to issues concerning improper privilege management that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Base CWE-269.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Improper Privilege Management

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

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
  • Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
  • Consider following the principle of separation of privilege. Require multiple conditions to be met before permitting access to a system resource.

More Improper Privilege Management vulnerabilities (CWE-269)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Cyber Vision

All Cisco Cyber Vision vulnerabilities

Recent Improper Privilege Management vulnerabilities

Spotted an error? Tell us.