⚠ 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 5.3

How to Fix CVE-2026-20027: Information Disclosure in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software

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

*By Sai Kiran Pandrala*

⚡ At a glance
SeverityCVSS 5.3 - Medium
Actively exploited?Not currently listed in CISA KEV
Affected7.0.0, 7.0.0.1, 7.0.1, 7.1.0, 7.0.1.1, 7.1.0.1, and others
Fixed inSee vendor advisory
Type (CWE)CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

What is CVE-2026-20027?

CVE-2026-20027 is an information disclosure flaw in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software. The product returns sensitive data to a caller who should not have access, including credentials, session tokens, or configuration. Disclosure often feeds a follow-up attack chain. Vendor description: Multiple Cisco products are affected by a vulnerability in the processing of DCE/RPC requests that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the Snort 3 Detection Engine to leak sensitive information or to restart, resulting in an interruption of packet inspection. This vulnerability is due to an error in buffer handling logic when processing DCE/RPC requests, which can result in a buffer out-of-bounds read.

Why this CVE matters

Information disclosure flaws are dangerous because they make the next attack easier. Sensitive configuration, session material, or credentials leaked from one endpoint frequently power the follow-on attack that actually takes over the system.

For deployments of Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software that have been exposed to the public internet during the disclosure window, the operating assumption should be that scanning has already happened. Even where exploitation has not been publicly observed, scanning for the vulnerable fingerprint is cheap and routine. 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-2026-20027

  1. Read the vendor advisory in full: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snort3-dcerpc-vulns-J9HNF4tH
  2. Upgrade Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software to the patched build listed in the vendor advisory.
  3. Back up the configuration (and database, where applicable) before upgrading.
  4. Apply the patch in a maintenance window. For HA pairs, upgrade the standby node first, fail over, then upgrade the former primary.
  5. Restart the affected service so the patched binary loads, then verify the new version (see verification section).

Cisco device CLI


# Confirm the patched build against the vendor advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snort3-dcerpc-vulns-J9HNF4tH
# 1. Confirm the running image on the Cisco Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software device.
show version
show inventory

# 2. Stage the patched image from Cisco's Software Center, verify SHA512 before installing.
copy ftp://10.0.0.10/cisco-secure-firewall-threat-defense--ftd--software-<patched-version-from-advisory>.bin flash:

# 3. Set boot variable and reload during a maintenance window.
configure terminal
no boot system
boot system flash:cisco-secure-firewall-threat-defense--ftd--software-<patched-version-from-advisory>.bin
end
write memory
reload

# 4. After reboot, confirm the new image.
show version | include System image

Verify the fix landed


# Confirm the patched build against the vendor advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-snort3-dcerpc-vulns-J9HNF4tH
# 1. Confirm the running version equals the advisory's fixed-in build.
#    (Use the platform-specific version probe from the commands above.)

# 2. Re-scan with your vulnerability scanner (Nessus, Qualys, Tenable, OpenVAS).
#    The scanner should no longer flag CVE-2026-20027 on the patched target.

# 3. Inspect recent service and kernel logs for crash-loops or rollback events.
journalctl --since "10 minutes ago" | tail -200
dmesg --since "10 minutes ago" | tail -100

If you cannot patch immediately

No official workaround exists beyond restricting network exposure to the affected component. Apply the vendor patch as the primary remediation.

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 unusually long URI paths containing traversal sequences, unexpectedly large responses from the affected endpoint, and outbound requests from the application to internal addresses or cloud-metadata endpoints. Treat any sensitive file the bug could disclose as exposed.

Frequently asked questions

Is CVE-2026-20027 being exploited in the wild?

Public exploitation has not been confirmed by CISA at the time of writing. Treat the patch as time-sensitive anyway; reports often lag actual abuse.

Will a WAF or IDS rule fully mitigate CVE-2026-20027?

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.

How long should I plan for the upgrade?

Typical vendor-documented upgrade windows for Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software run from a few minutes to under an hour depending on cluster size. Test in a staging environment first and follow the vendor's documented HA upgrade order.

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.*