⚠ Reference material — not professional advice. Test in staging, back up first, verify against your specific version. Use your own judgment for your environment.
● Medium · CVSS 6.5 ⚠ ACTIVELY EXPLOITED — CISA KEV

How to Fix CVE-2023-20118: Command Injection in Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware

Other vulnerabilities in the same area that are worth patching alongside this one:

*By Sai Kiran Pandrala*

⚡ At a glance
SeverityCVSS 6.5 - Medium
Actively exploited?Yes, listed in CISA KEV (added 2025-03-03)
Affected1.0.1.17, 1.0.2.03, 1.1.0.09, 1.1.1.19, 1.1.1.06, 1.2.1.13, and others
Fixed inSee vendor advisory
Type (CWE)CWE-77: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command ('Command Injection')
Patch immediately. CISA's KEV listing means active exploitation is confirmed. Federal agencies must remediate by 2025-03-24.

What is CVE-2023-20118?

CVE-2023-20118 is an OS command injection bug in Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware. The product builds a shell command from untrusted input without escaping, so injected metacharacters run as the service account, often root or SYSTEM. Vendor description: A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Small Business Routers RV016, RV042, RV042G, RV082, RV320, and RV325 Routers could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user input within incoming HTTP packets.

Why this CVE matters

Command injection in a network appliance or management console gives the attacker the same privileges as the service account, which is usually root or SYSTEM. From there, persistence, lateral movement, and credential theft follow with off-the-shelf tooling.

For deployments of Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware that have been exposed to the public internet during the disclosure window, the operating assumption should be that scanning has already happened. Confirmed in-the-wild exploitation makes that assumption mandatory, not cautious. Patching closes the door; log review and credential rotation close out the rest of the response.

Am I affected?

You are affected if your installation matches any of these version ranges:

Check your installed version against the list above. If you cannot determine the version, treat the system as affected and follow the upgrade path below.

On Cisco IOS / IOS XE systems, run show version to read the running image and compare against the affected ranges. For ASA / FTD, use show version from privileged EXEC mode.

How to fix CVE-2023-20118

  1. Read the vendor advisory in full: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sbr042-multi-vuln-ej76Pke5
  2. Upgrade Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware to the patched build listed in the vendor advisory.
  3. Back up the configuration (and database, where applicable) before upgrading.
  4. Rotate any credentials, API keys, or session tokens that the vulnerable service touched. An unauthenticated RCE-class flaw means anything the process could see should be treated as exposed.
  5. Apply the patch in a maintenance window. For HA pairs, upgrade the standby node first, fail over, then upgrade the former primary.
  6. Restart the affected service so the patched binary loads, then verify the new version (see verification section).

Upgrade the affected Cisco platform


! Verify the running release on the device
show version
show inventory

! Stage the patched image from the Cisco Security Advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sbr042-multi-vuln-ej76Pke5
copy tftp://<fileserver>/<patched-image>.bin flash:

! Set the boot image and reload in a maintenance window
configure terminal
boot system flash:<patched-image>.bin
end
write memory
reload

! After reload, confirm the new image is running
show version | include image

Verify the fix landed


# 1. Confirm the running version matches the fixed-in version from the advisory:
#    https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sbr042-multi-vuln-ej76Pke5
#    Use the platform-specific version probe above.

# 2. Re-scan with your vulnerability scanner (Nessus, Qualys, Tenable, OpenVAS).
#    The scanner should no longer flag CVE-2023-20118 on the patched target.

# 3. Inspect recent service / kernel logs for crash loops or rollback events.
journalctl -u <service> --since "10 minutes ago"
dmesg --since "10 minutes ago"

If you cannot patch immediately

Restrict access to the management interface to trusted internal IP addresses only. Block public access at the firewall and require VPN for any remote administration. Apply the patch as soon as a maintenance window allows.

How to verify the fix worked

If your installation was internet-reachable during the disclosure window, treat log review as part of the remediation rather than an optional follow-up. Look for unexpected administrator accounts in Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware, scheduled tasks or cron jobs you did not create, new files in web-accessible directories, and outbound connections to addresses not in your baseline. Suspicious requests to the vulnerable endpoint immediately followed by successful 200-class responses with unusually large bodies are a strong indicator of exploitation. Because Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware sits on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog for this CVE, defenders should also pull the IOC list from the vendor advisory and from CISA's analysis if one was published.

Frequently asked questions

Is CVE-2023-20118 being exploited in the wild?

Yes. CISA added CVE-2023-20118 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means active exploitation has been confirmed by federal observation or credible vendor reporting.

Will a WAF or IDS rule fully mitigate CVE-2023-20118?

No. Network-layer filters can reduce noise and slow opportunistic scanners, but they will not stop a determined attacker. The vendor patch is the only durable fix.

Do I need to assume compromise if my Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware was internet-facing and unpatched?

For an unauthenticated RCE-class flaw exposed to the public internet during the known exploitation window, yes. Review logs, rotate credentials the process could access, and look for unexpected accounts, scheduled tasks, or outbound connections.

References

*This guide was assembled from the official vendor advisory, the NVD record, and the CISA KEV catalog entry on 2026-05-25. Always confirm against the vendor advisory before applying changes in production.*