Vulnerability in Cisco iOS Xe Software
CVE-2026-20272
As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco IOS XE Software engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in software hardening releases that address multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20272 are related to issues with improper neutralization of special elements that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-74.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.006 (47.4th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 47th percentile — 47.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.006 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Cisco iOS Xe Software — versions 16.9.3a, 16.12.1x, 16.9.2
- Cisco iOS Xe — versions 16.6.2, 16.6.3, 16.6.4
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-20272?
- CVE-2026-20272 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Cisco iOS Xe Software, classified under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection). CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-08-05.
- How severe is CVE-2026-20272?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.