CVE-2026-20045

Cisco Unified Communications Manager: Unified Communications Products Code Injection

As of , CVE-2026-20045 in Cisco Unified Communications Manager is on CISA's list of exploited vulnerabilities: CISA listed it on . Our patch-first group: Patch soon.

Exploited
Yes: CISA listed it on 21 January 2026
US federal deadline
11 February 202621 days after CISA listed it. US federal civilian agencies must fix it by then.
Used in ransomware campaigns
Not known to CISA
EPSS score
0.05Higher than 91% of the CVEs EPSS scores. EPSS estimates the chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
Public exploit
None foundNeither Metasploit nor Exploit-DB lists one.
Fix
Vendor advice: sec.cloudapps.cisco.comLinks below, from CISA's entry.

What CISA says to do

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

CISA's required action

What the flaw is

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME), Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM & Presence Service (Unified CM IM&P), Cisco Unity Connection, and Cisco Webex Calling Dedicated Instance contain a code injection vulnerability that could allow the attacker to obtain user-level access to the underlying operating system and then elevate privileges to root.

CISA's description

A vulnerability in Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME), Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM & Presence Service (Unified CM IM&P), Cisco Unity Connection, and Cisco Webex Calling Dedicated Instance could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system of an affected device.  This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input in HTTP requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a sequence of crafted HTTP requests to the web-based management interface of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain user-level access to the underlying operating system and then elevate privileges to root.  Note: Cisco has assigned this security advisory a Security Impact Rating (SIR) of Critical rather than High as the score indicates. The reason is that exploitation of this vulnerability could result in an attacker elevating privileges to root.

The CVE record's description, from cisco

CVE published
21 January 2026
Assigned by
cisco
CVSS
8.2 High (CVSS 3.1, from the CNA)
CWE-94
Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CISA SSVC, exploitation
active
CISA SSVC, automatable
yes
CISA SSVC, technical impact
total

Timeline

  1. The CVE record was published.
  2. CISA added it to its list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  3. The US federal deadline to fix it.

Unified Communications Manager: other exploited entries

VulnerabilityProductOur groupListedDeadlineEPSS
CVE-2026-20230Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)Cisco Unified Communications ManagerPatch this weekEPSS 0.880.88

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