CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2022-20681 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

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.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2022-04-15
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-266

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.11.1
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.11.1a
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.11.1b
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.11.1c
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.11.1s
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.11.2

Showing 6 representative product identities from 67 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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