A critical vulnerability (CVE-2026-20160) in Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem allows unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges by sending a crafted request to an unintentionally exposed internal API service. Cisco has released software updates to address this vulnerability, and there are no available workarounds.
A vulnerability in Cisco Smart Software Manager On-Prem (SSM On-Prem) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system of an affected SSM On-Prem host. This vulnerability is due to the unintentional exposure of an internal service. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to the API of the exposed service. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands on the underlying operating system with root -level privileges. Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability. This advisory is available at the following link: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ssm-cli-execution-cHUcWuNr <br/>Security Impact Rating: Critical <br/>CVE: CVE-2026-20160