Description

As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Crosswork engineering team has conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities. The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20030 are related to improper neutralization of special elements used in a SQL command issues that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) CWE-89.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "10.0",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T17:18:38.957Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T17:18:38.957Z",
  "executiveSummary": "An internal security review conducted by the Cisco Crosswork engineering team resulted in the identification of software hardening issues tracked under CVE-2026-20030. This advisory addresses multiple vulnerabilities categorized as CWE-89, which pertains to the improper neutralization of special elements used in a SQL command. The presence of these vulnerabilities exposes the affected product to SQL injection risks, potentially allowing malicious actors to manipulate database queries through unsanitized input vectors.\nThe impact of successful exploitation includes unauthorized access to backend database systems, potential data exfiltration, data tampering, or unauthorized execution of arbitrary SQL commands within the context of the application's database privileges. The affected system is Cisco Crosswork. Given the nature of SQL injection flaws, malicious actors with network access to vulnerable input interfaces could leverage crafted payloads to interact improperly with the underlying database storage layer, undermining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of stored data.\nNo specific attacker capabilities, authentication requirements, or advanced exploitation prerequisites beyond those inherent to the identified vulnerability class are explicitly detailed in the advisory, other than the need for input vectors capable of reaching the vulnerable SQL command construction logic. Remediation requires deploying the official software hardening release provided by Cisco to address these internally discovered issues.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability identified by CVE-2026-20030 stems from software defects within Cisco Crosswork involving the improper neutralization of special characters and control elements utilized in SQL commands. Categorized under Common Weakness Enumeration CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command), the root cause lies in the insufficient validation, sanitization, or parameterization of user-supplied or externally influenced data before incorporating it directly into database query strings executed by the application.\nFrom an exploitation methodology perspective, an attacker targets the vulnerability by supplying specially crafted input containing SQL meta-characters or command syntax into application parameters that interface with the database layer. Because the application fails to properly neutralize these special elements, the database interpreter parses the injected malicious payload as part of the intended SQL command, altering the query logic dynamically at runtime.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the malicious actor identifies an input vector within Cisco Crosswork that passes data to the backend database query generator without adequate input filtering or the use of parameterized queries. Second, the actor crafts a specific payload designed to break out of the intended data context and append arbitrary SQL commands. Third, the application forwards the unmitigated query string to the underlying database engine. Finally, the database executes the modified query, allowing the attacker to retrieve sensitive information, bypass logical access controls, or execute unauthorized database operations depending on the privileges assigned to the database connection.\nThe vulnerable component involves the internal software logic responsible for constructing and executing SQL queries within Cisco Crosswork. The advisory notes that these issues were discovered during a comprehensive internal security review and addressed via a software hardening release. Specific details regarding exact affected version strings, underlying file paths, function names, authentication requirements, privilege thresholds, network exposure vectors, and post-exploitation persistence mechanisms are not explicitly documented in the provided source text, but typical vulnerabilities of this class generally demand network accessibility to the application interface handling the affected parameters."
}