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CVE-2026-20131: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software and Cisco Security Cloud Control (SCC) Firewall Management Deserialization of…

CVE-2026-20131 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 and affects Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC). Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-03-19, which means exploitation in the wild has been observed.

Vulnerability description

A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary Java code as root on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insecure deserialization of a user-supplied Java byte stream. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted serialized Java object to the web-based management interface of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device and elevate privileges to root. Note: If the FMC management interface does not have public internet access, the attack surface that is associated with this vulnerability is reduced.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 10.0: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Changed. Impact reaches beyond the vulnerable component to other resources.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-502: Deserialization of Untrusted Data

The product deserializes untrusted data without sufficiently ensuring that the resulting data will be valid.

Affected products

  • Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center: 6.4.0.13; 6.4.0.14; 6.4.0.15; 6.4.0.16; 6.4.0.17; 6.4.0.18; 7.0.0; 7.0.0.1; 7.0.1; 7.0.1.1; 7.0.2; 7.0.2.1

References