Sd Wan FirmwareOperating system · Cisco
CVE-2020-3265
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA vulnerability in Cisco SD-WAN Solution software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root on the underlying operating system. The vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to an affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain root-level privileges.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco SD-WAN Solution allows an authenticated attacker with local system access to elevate from their current privileges to root by sending crafted requests due to insufficient input validation in the software.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Sd Wan FirmwareOperating system
< 18.4.5>= 19.2.0, < 19.2.2= 20.1.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Cisco SD-WAN product is in useIdentify if the environment contains Cisco SD-WAN components such as vManage, vEdge, or vSmart controllers. Check inventory or network documentation for these product names.Affected if The environment does not contain Cisco SD-WAN products, then this CVE does not apply.
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Locate the SD-WAN firmware versionAccess the SD-WAN controller or edge device admin interface (vManage web UI, CLI via 'show version' command, or API). Navigate to Administration > Software Repository or use 'show software' CLI command to list installed images.Affected if Unable to retrieve a firmware version indicates the product may not be SD-WAN or access is unavailable.
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Compare version against vulnerable rangesMatch the obtained firmware version against: < 18.4.5, >= 19.2.0 but < 19.2.2, or exactly 20.1.0. These ranges indicate the presence of the privilege escalation flaw.Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: below 18.4.5, 19.2.0 through 19.2.1, or exactly 20.1.0.
If the environment runs Cisco SD-WAN firmware matching the vulnerable version ranges listed, the system is potentially affected by this local privilege escalation flaw.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data18.4.519.2.2
Apply the Cisco vendor patch for CVE-2020-3265; limit local system access to trusted, authorized personnel only.
Fix this in Sd Wan Firmware
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,848.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-3265 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-3265 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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