Auth bypass in Cisco Secure Workload

CVE-2026-20223

A vulnerability in the access validation of internal REST APIs of Cisco Secure Workload could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access site resources with the privileges of the Site Admin role. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation and authentication when accessing REST API endpoints. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability if they are able to send a crafted API request to an affected endpoint. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read sensitive information and make configuration changes across tenant boundaries with the privileges of the Site Admin user. 

Vulnerability class: Broken Authentication

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 10.0 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.008 (56.0th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 56th percentile — 56.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-20223: held from 0.008 to 0.008.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-20223?
CVE-2026-20223 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Cisco Secure Workload, classified under Missing Authentication for Critical Function. CVSS score: 10.0/10. Published 2026-05-20.
How severe is CVE-2026-20223?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 10.0 out of 10.
Is CVE-2026-20223 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.