Cisco Nexus 3000 and 9000 Series Switches Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

published 2020-08-27 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-24665

cvss: 7.8; version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.3%; EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 25%
public exploits: 0; none known

A vulnerability in the Enable Secret feature of Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches and Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode could allow an authenticated, local attacker to issue the enable command and get full administrative privileges. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to have valid credentials for the affected device. The vulnerability is due to a logic error in the implementation of the enable command. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the device and issuing the enable command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain full administrative privileges without using the enable password. Note: The Enable Secret feature is disabled by default.

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 23 mo ago (2024-11-13)

Exploit prediction

0.32% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 25% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.0	7.8	CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	7.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	7.2	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

Cisco Cisco NX-OS Software

Classification

Weakness

CWE-285 Improper Authorization
CWE-862 Missing Authorization

References

tools.cisco.com /security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-n3n9k-priv-escal-3QhXJBC
vendor-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2020-3394
NVD CVE-2020-3394

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Summary