Patch now. It under exploitation confirmed by CISA and has a working public exploit.
ssvc Actcvss 10epss 92%
from disclosure to weapon8 days
Published on NVDMay 14
1st PoC+8d
metasploitMay 7
CISA KEVMay 14
exploitation probability
92%top 1% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
yesCISA + VulnCheck
6 public exploit(s)
Action required by CISAfederal deadline: 2026-05-17
Please adhere to CISA’s guidelines to assess exposure and mitigate risks associated with Cisco SD-WAN devices as outlined in CISA’s Emergency Directive 26-03 (URL listed below in Notes) and CISA’s Hunt & Hardening Guidance for Cisco SD-WAN Devices (URL listed below in Notes). Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available.
In short
A flaw in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller allows an attacker to bypass authentication and gain administrator access without valid credentials. This means attackers can take over the system and modify critical network configurations.
Technical detail
The vulnerability exists in the peering authentication mechanism of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, Manager, and Validator. An unauthenticated remote attacker can send specially crafted requests to bypass authentication and obtain a high-privileged internal account, enabling unauthorized access to NETCONF for arbitrary manipulation of SD-WAN fabric configuration.
Summary generated and translated by AI from the official description.
May 2026: This security advisory provides the details and fix information for a vulnerability that was discovered and fixed after the was disclosed in February 2026. This new advisory is for a new vulnerability in the control connection handshaking. The section of this advisory includes Show Control Connections guidance to help with system checks.
A vulnerability in the peering authentication in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller, formerly SD-WAN vSmart, Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, formerly SD-WAN vManage, and Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Validator, formerly SD-WAN vBond, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass authentication and obtain administrative privileges on an affected system.
This vulnerability exists because the peering authentication mechanism in an affected system is not working properly. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted requests to the affected system. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to an affected Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Controller as an internal, high-privileged, non-root user account. Using this account, the attacker could access NETCONF, which would then allow the attacker to manipulate network configuration for the SD-WAN fabric.