CVE-2022-20681: Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9000 Family Switches and Catalyst 9000 Family Wireless Controllers Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2022-04-15 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-266

Description

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco IOS XE Software for Cisco Catalyst 9000 Family Switches and Cisco Catalyst 9000 Family Wireless Controllers could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to level 15 on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user privileges after the user executes certain CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to an affected device as a low-privileged user and then executing certain CLI commands. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with level 15 privileges on the affected device.

Affected products

Cisco IOS XE: 16.11.1, 16.11.1a, 16.11.1b, 16.11.1c, 16.11.1s, 16.11.2 (+61)

References

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