CVE-2026-20092: cisco cisco intersight virtual appliance

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-20092 is a medium (CVSS 6.0) vulnerability in cisco cisco intersight virtual appliance. EPSS estimates a 0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 1.7% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 21-01-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 26-02-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A vulnerability in the read-only maintenance shell of Cisco Intersight Virtual Appliance could allow an authenticated, local attacker with administrative privileges to elevate privileges to root on the virtual appliance. This vulnerability is due to improper file permissions on configuration files for system accounts within the maintenance shell of the virtual appliance. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by accessing the maintenance shell as a read-only administrator and manipulating system files to grant root privileges. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate their privileges to root on the virtual appliance and gain full control of the appliance, giving them the ability to access sensitive information, modify workloads and configurations on the host system, and cause a denial of service (DoS).

• CWE-732Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical ResourceThe product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.