CVE-2023-20029: Cisco IOS XE Software 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: 2023-03-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-122

Description

A vulnerability in the Meraki onboarding feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to gain root level privileges on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient memory protection in the Meraki onboarding feature of an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by modifying the Meraki registration parameters. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root.

Affected products

Cisco IOS XE: 17.7.1, 17.8.1

References

https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-priv-esc-sABD8hcU
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-priv-esc-sABD8hcU

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