CVE-2026-20040

HIGHPre-NVD 8.88.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to the CVSS score beside it.

Score 8.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-03-11. A secondary CVSS source baseline 8.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, a secondary CVSS source
8.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan mitigationRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.2%CVSS: 8.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

No fix is confirmed yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for the fix.

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.

CVSS v3
8.8
EG Score
8.8HIGHmedium confidence
EG Risk
40
EG Risk 40/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity88% × 45%
The EG Score, 8.8 of 10.
Exploitation0.2% × 40%
FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: No fix is confirmed yet. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines, and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix.
EPSS PROB
0.2%
EPSS %ILE
6th
KEV
Not listed

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).

No fix is confirmed yet. Restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation within your standard update timelines, and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

March 11, 2026

Last Modified

July 1, 2026

Advisory Details (1)

Auto-updated Jul 2, 2026
No fix on record yet.
Web page

Cisco IOS XR Software CLI Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities

https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxr-privesc-bF8D5U4W

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-20040(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 11× in last 7d / 26× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 97 of 129 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 3 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 32 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-12 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  2. 2026-10-12 16:24 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-10-11 20:06 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-10-11 17:19 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-11 14:51 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-10-11 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  7. 2026-10-10 19:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  8. 2026-10-09 20:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  9. 2026-10-08 17:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  10. 2026-10-07 23:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  11. 2026-10-06 15:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  12. 2026-10-05 17:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  13. 2026-10-04 23:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  14. 2026-10-01 19:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  15. 2026-09-30 15:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  16. 2026-09-29 15:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  17. 2026-09-28 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  18. 2026-09-27 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  19. 2026-09-26 15:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  20. 2026-09-26 00:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  21. 2026-09-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 5th percentile
  22. 2026-09-20 20:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  23. 2026-09-18 19:27 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  24. 2026-09-16 14:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  25. 2026-09-16 05:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
Show 72 more
  1. 2026-09-13 16:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  2. 2026-09-12 15:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  3. 2026-09-11 14:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  4. 2026-09-11 09:36 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  5. 2026-09-10 09:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  6. 2026-09-08 22:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  7. 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  8. 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  9. 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  10. 2026-09-01 13:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  11. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  12. 2026-08-28 21:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  13. 2026-08-27 14:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  14. 2026-08-26 14:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  15. 2026-08-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  16. 2026-08-23 00:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  17. 2026-08-21 23:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  18. 2026-08-20 22:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  19. 2026-08-19 17:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  20. 2026-08-18 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  21. 2026-08-17 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  22. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  23. 2026-08-16 11:53 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-08-16 11:53 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  25. 2026-08-16 02:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  26. 2026-08-15 01:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  27. 2026-08-14 20:12 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  28. 2026-08-14 07:50 UTCEG score recompute
  29. 2026-08-14 07:50 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  30. 2026-08-13 22:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  31. 2026-08-12 23:02 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-08-12 23:02 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  33. 2026-08-12 13:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  34. 2026-08-11 21:51 UTCEG score recompute
  35. 2026-08-11 21:51 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  36. 2026-08-11 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  37. 2026-08-11 04:59 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-08-11 04:59 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  39. 2026-08-11 00:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  40. 2026-08-10 07:17 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  41. 2026-08-09 19:24 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-08-09 19:24 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  43. 2026-08-09 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  44. 2026-08-09 07:32 UTCEG score recompute
  45. 2026-08-09 07:32 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  46. 2026-08-08 16:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  47. 2026-08-08 06:11 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  48. 2026-08-07 18:18 UTCEG score recompute
  49. 2026-08-07 18:18 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  50. 2026-08-06 19:54 UTCEG score recompute
  51. 2026-08-06 19:54 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  52. 2026-08-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  53. 2026-08-06 02:03 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-08-06 02:03 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  55. 2026-08-05 19:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  56. 2026-08-04 15:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  57. 2026-08-04 10:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  58. 2026-08-04 01:21 UTCEG score recompute
  59. 2026-08-04 01:21 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  60. 2026-08-03 10:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  61. 2026-08-02 17:37 UTCEG score recompute
  62. 2026-08-02 17:37 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-4x82-6phf-h73c · GitHub severity HIGH · GitHub CVSS 8.8
  63. 2026-08-02 02:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  64. 2026-08-01 04:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  65. 2026-07-30 01:30 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  66. 2026-07-27 14:13 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  67. 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  68. 2026-07-25 14:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  69. 2026-07-24 14:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  70. 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile
  71. 2026-07-23 03:06 UTCEG score recompute
  72. 2026-07-22 14:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.2% · 6th percentile

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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-20040?
CVE-2026-20040 is a high-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on March 11, 2026. 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…
When was the CVE record for CVE-2026-20040 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2026-20040 was published on March 11, 2026. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of July 1, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-20040 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-20040 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (6th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-20040?
CVE-2026-20040 has a CVSS base score of 8.8 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-20040?
No fix for CVE-2026-20040 is confirmed yet. Until one is published, restrict network exposure of the affected system or apply the vendor's mitigation — for example, keep it off the internet or limit it to trusted networks — and watch the vendor's advisory for the fix. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-20040 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

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