CVE-2020-3393: Cisco IOS XE Software IOx Application Hosting Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Telemetry drift only. No threshold crossed and no authority ruling changed.
CVE record, CISA KEV and EPSS as of 2026-10-18.
CVEs like this one computed, by meaning
What to do now held facts and links
- No fix version is held. The CNA's first reference is the place to look: tools.cisco.com
- Record your decision, dated and frozen with today's evidence: patch by a date · mitigated by a compensating control · deferred · accepted the risk · not affected
- Check your version against the ranges this record publishes.
What it is stated by the CNA
A vulnerability in the application-hosting subsystem of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges to root on an affected device. The attacker could execute IOS XE commands outside the application-hosting subsystem Docker container as well as on the underlying Linux operating system. These commands could be run as the root user. The vulnerability is due to a combination of two factors: (a) incomplete input validation of the user payload of CLI commands, and (b) improper role-based access control (RBAC) when commands are issued at the command line within the application-hosting subsystem. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using a CLI command with crafted user input. A successful exploit could allow the lower-privileged attacker to execute arbitrary CLI commands with root privileges. …
- weakness
- CWE-269
- affected
- Cisco IOS XE Software
- published ranges
- cisco ios xe 16.12.1
- fixed in
- No fix version in held sources.
- severity
- 6 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- assigned by
- cisco
- published
- 2020-09-24
check us tools.cisco.com
Exploit code held, dated
- exploit code
- None held in the PoC-in-GitHub feed. A public repository changes this brief.
What moved held, dated
| date | EPSS | event |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Apr 2021 | 0.00389 | |
| 6 Jan 2022 | 0.01723 | |
| 4 Feb 2022 | 0.01366 | |
| 1 Apr 2022 | 0.00885 | |
| 7 Mar 2023 | 0.00042 | scoring model v2023.03.01 |
| 8 Mar 2023 | 0.00042 | |
| 17 Mar 2025 | 0.00034 | scoring model v2025.03.14 |
| 29 Mar 2025 | 0.00066 | |
| 30 Mar 2025 | 0.00034 | |
| 17 May 2025 | 0.00031 | |
| 18 Nov 2025 | 0.00028 | |
| 21 Nov 2025 | 0.00031 | |
| 27 Jan 2026 | 0.00105 | |
| 15 Jun 2026 | 0.00338 | scoring model v2026.06.15 |
| 19 Jun 2026 | 0.00342 |
15 observations held. A step marked with a scoring model moved because the measurement was replaced, not because the vulnerability changed.
Outside the record researched, cited
This section reads the record's references and adds cited findings from outside it. It needs an account. Everything above is held facts and is complete without it.
What would change this brief held, dated
- CISA KEV
- Not listed in the catalogue we hold. A listing changes this brief.
- exploit probability
- 0.00 on 2026-06-19 (FIRST's EPSS, a probability and not evidence of exploitation). Next band line: 10% (0.10). Crossing a line changes this brief.
- fix
- No fix version is held. One published by the CNA or OSV changes this brief.
How to check this
Every value above is held with two dates: when it was true upstream (as_of) and when we recorded it (tx_from). Re-derive the exploit probability as it stood on any date:
SELECT value, source, source_version, as_of, tx_from
FROM volatile_valid_as_of('CVE-2020-3393', '2026-10-31T23:59:59.999999Z', now());