CVE-2026-20316: Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Use of Hard-coded Password Vulnerability
What it is
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) formerly known as Firepower Management Center contains a use of hard-coded password vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to log in to an affected device using a low-privileged account to access sensitive data within the impacted systems.
What to do
Treat this as urgent. Identify every affected system, starting with anything internet-facing, and apply the vendor fix or mitigation within days. If you cannot patch quickly, isolate or disable the affected service and watch for signs of compromise.
- Priority
- Act now: Patch or mitigate internet-facing systems within days.
- Severity (CVSS)
- 5.3 medium
- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- actively exploited; attackers can automate it at scale; partial control or data exposure
- Exploit probability (EPSS, 30 days)
- 35%, higher than 98% of all CVEs
- Added to CISA KEV
- 29 July 2026
- CISA fix-by date
- 1 August 2026 (US federal agencies; a sensible deadline for everyone)
- Ransomware use
- Known
- Weakness
- CWE-259
References
- NIST NVD entry
- CISA KEV entry
- sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-f
- www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-20316
Sources: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities · FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS) · NIST National Vulnerability Database · CISA Vulnrichment (SSVC), via the CVE Program. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Summaries are machine-written from CISA’s description; treat the vendor’s advisory as the authority for fixes.