Unrated severityNVD Advisory· Published Mar 11, 2026· Updated Mar 12, 2026
Cisco IOS XR Software CLI Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
CVE-2026-20040
Description
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco IOS XR Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device.
This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user arguments that are passed to specific CLI commands. An attacker with a low-privileged account could exploit this vulnerability by using crafted commands at the prompt. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root and execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system.
Affected products
2- Cisco/Cisco IOS XR Softwarev5Range: 6.5.3
Patches
0No patches discovered yet.
Vulnerability mechanics
AI mechanics synthesis has not run for this CVE yet.
References
1News mentions
0No linked articles in our index yet.