Vulnerability Intelligence Report

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2026-20182

May 2026: This security advisory provides the details and fix information for a vulnerability that was discovered and fixed after the was disclosed in February 2026. This new advisory is for a new vulnerability in the control connection handshaking. The section of this advisory includes Show Control Connections guidance to help with system checks.  A vulnerability in the peering authentication in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, formerly SD-WAN vSmart, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, formerly SD-WAN vManage, and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Validator, formerly SD-WAN vBond, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and obtain administrative privileges on an affected system. This vulnerability exists because the peering authentication mechanism in an affected system is not working properly. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted requests to the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to an affected Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller as an internal, high-privileged, non-root user account. Using this account, the attacker could access NETCONF, which would then allow the attacker to manipulate network configuration for the SD-WAN fabric.

CISA KEV Nuclei Template SSVC: Active Exploitation Automatable

CVSS Base Score

10.0

CRITICAL

Exploitability:3.9

Impact Score:6.1

EPSS Probability:87.69%

Executive Threat Verdict

Evaluating...

Evaluating Threat Landscape...

Assessing known weaponization, exploitation telemetry, and federal advisories.

Attack Surface

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Authentication

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Weaponization

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SSVC Action

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Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-287 ↗Improper Authentication

Affected Products & Versions

Vendor	Product	Affected Versions
Cisco	Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller	20.6.4 (affected), 20.9.2 (affected), 20.3.6 (affected), 20.7.2 (affected), 20.7.1 (affected), 20.5.1 (affected), 20.6.2 (affected), 19.3.0 (affected), 20.6.1 (affected), 17.2.4 (affected), 18.2.0 (affected), 18.4.6 (affected), 19.1.0 (affected), 19.2.4 (affected), 19.2.929 (affected), 18.3.8 (affected), 18.4.303 (affected), 18.3.7 (affected), 18.4.1 (affected), 19.2.097 (affected), 19.2.0 (affected), 19.2.099 (affected), 18.3.6 (affected), 20.4.2 (affected), 19.0.0 (affected), 20.9.1 (affected), 20.3.5 (affected), 20.3.1 (affected), 18.3.5 (affected), 20.6.3 (affected), 18.4.3 (affected), 18.4.4 (affected), 18.3.3 (affected), 17.2.8 (affected), 20.8.1 (affected), 19.2.32 (affected), 19.2.2 (affected), 17.2.5 (affected), 18.4.0 (affected), 20.4.1.1 (affected), 20.1.3 (affected), 20.1.2 (affected), 17.2.10 (affected), 19.2.098 (affected), 20.1.1 (affected), 17.2.6 (affected), 19.2.1 (affected), 18.3.4 (affected), 20.4.1 (affected), 17.2.9 (affected), 19.2.31 (affected), 19.0.1a (affected), 18.3.0 (affected), 17.2.7 (affected), 18.4.5 (affected), 20.3.4 (affected), 20.3.3 (affected), 20.4.1.2 (affected), 20.3.2 (affected), 18.3.1 (affected), 20.1.12 (affected), 19.2.3 (affected), 20.10.1 (affected), 20.6.5 (affected), 20.3.7 (affected), 20.9.3 (affected), 20.11.1 (affected), 20.6.3.2 (affected), 20.4.2.3 (affected), 20.3.5.1 (affected), 20.3.4.3 (affected), 20.9.3.1 (affected), 20.6.4.1 (affected), 20.3.3.2 (affected), 20.6.5.2 (affected), 20.3.7.1 (affected), 20.11.1.1 (affected), 20.10.1.1 (affected), 20.6.1.2 (affected), 20.1.3.1 (affected), 20.9.2.2 (affected), 20.6.5.3 (affected), 20.6.3.3 (affected), 20.3.7.2 (affected), 20.6.5.4 (affected), 20.9.2.3 (affected), 20.9.4 (affected), 20.12.1 (affected), 20.3.8 (affected), 20.6.6 (affected), 20.12.2 (affected), 20.13.1 (affected), 20.9.5 (affected), 20.12.3 (affected), 20.6.7 (affected), 20.9.5.1 (affected), 20.14.1 (affected), 20.12.3.1 (affected), 20.12.4 (affected), 20.15.1 (affected), 20.9.6 (affected), 20.6.8 (affected), 20.16.1 (affected), 20.9.5.3 (affected), 20.12.4.1 (affected), 20.15.2 (affected), 20.12.5 (affected), 20.9.7 (affected), 20.15.3 (affected), 20.12.5.1 (affected), 20.12.5.2 (affected), 20.15.4 (affected), 20.9.7.1 (affected), 20.12.6 (affected), 20.9.8 (affected), 20.15.4.1 (affected), 20.15.4.2 (affected), 20.12.5.3 (affected), 20.12.6.1 (affected), 20.9.8.2 (affected), 20.15.5 (affected), 20.12.7 (affected), 20.9.9 (affected), 20.15.5.1 (affected), 20.15.4.3 (affected), 20.15.4.5 (affected), 20.15.5.3 (affected), 20.12.7.2 (affected), 20.9.9.2 (affected)
Cisco	Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager	20.1.12 (affected), 19.2.1 (affected), 18.4.4 (affected), 18.4.5 (affected), 20.1.1.1 (affected), 20.1.1 (affected), 19.2.099 (affected), 18.3.6 (affected), 18.3.7 (affected), 19.2.0 (affected), 19.1.0 (affected), 18.4.303 (affected), 19.2.098 (affected), 18.3.6.1 (affected), 18.2.0 (affected), 17.2.8 (affected), 18.3.3.1 (affected), 18.4.0 (affected), 18.3.1 (affected), 17.2.6 (affected), 17.2.9 (affected), 17.2.5 (affected), 18.4.0.1 (affected), 18.3.3 (affected), 18.3.0 (affected), 19.2.3 (affected), 18.4.501_ES (affected), 20.1.2 (affected), 19.2.929 (affected), 19.2.31 (affected), 20.3.2 (affected), 19.2.4 (affected), 19.2.4.0.9 (affected), 20.1.3.1 (affected)

Exploitation & Remediation

References & Technical Advisories

NVD Listing ↗ MITRE Listing ↗ GitHub Advisory ↗

No reference links found.

Threat Intelligence Signals

CISA KEV

ACTIVE IN CATALOG

Nuclei Template

SCANNER AVAILABLE

EPSS Score

87.693%

GitHub Advisory

GHSA-p83j-mxpw-gqpj ↗

CVSS Vector Breakdown

Attack Vector

Attack Complexity

Privileges Required

User Interaction

Confidentiality

Integrity

Availability

Identity & Timeline

Status	PUBLISHED
Assigning Authority	Cisco Systems, Inc. · Hosted Service · USA
Reserved	2025-10-08T11:59:15
Published	2026-05-14T16:08:25
Last Updated	2026-06-16T17:57:59

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Tactics

Techniques

CVE-2026-20182

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Public Weaponization & Exploit Code Exploit-DB Catalog

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Products & Versions

Exploitation & Remediation

References & Technical Advisories

Threat Intelligence Signals

CVSS Vector Breakdown

Identity & Timeline

SSVC Prioritization

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

CVE-2026-20182

—

Public Weaponization & Exploit Code Exploit-DB Catalog

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Products & Versions

Exploitation & Remediation

References & Technical Advisories

Threat Intelligence Signals

CVSS Vector Breakdown

Identity & Timeline

SSVC Prioritization

MITRE ATT&CK Mapping

Community Chatter & Buzz

Related Intelligence

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