CVE-2026-20113
CRLF Injection in Cisco IOS XE IOx Management Interface
Publication date: 2026-03-25
Last updated on: 2026-03-25
Assigner: Cisco Systems, Inc.
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| cisco | ios_xe | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-93 | The product uses CRLF (carriage return line feeds) as a special element, e.g. to separate lines or records, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes CRLF sequences from inputs. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
How does this vulnerability affect compliance with common standards and regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA)?:
The provided information does not specify how this vulnerability directly affects compliance with common standards and regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability exists in the web-based Cisco IOx application hosting environment management interface of Cisco IOS XE Software. It allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to perform a carriage return line feed (CRLF) injection attack against a user.
The root cause is insufficient validation of user input. An attacker can exploit this by sending specially crafted packets to the affected device.
If successfully exploited, the attacker can arbitrarily inject log entries, manipulate the structure of log files, or obscure legitimate log events.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can impact you by allowing an attacker to inject false or misleading information into log files.
Such manipulation can obscure legitimate log events, making it difficult to detect malicious activity or troubleshoot issues.
This could lead to compromised system monitoring and incident response, potentially allowing attackers to hide their presence or actions.
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
This vulnerability affects Cisco devices running vulnerable Cisco IOS XE Software releases configured with the IOx application hosting environment, which is not enabled by default.
To detect if your device is potentially vulnerable, you can verify the presence of IOx by running the following command in privileged EXEC mode:
- show run | include iox
If the output contains "iox," the device is vulnerable to this CRLF injection vulnerability.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
There are no workarounds available for this vulnerability.
Cisco strongly recommends upgrading to fixed software releases to fully remediate the issue.
Customers should obtain fixed software from Cisco or authorized partners and ensure device compatibility with new releases.
Additionally, Cisco provides the Cisco Software Checker tool to help identify affected software versions and the earliest fixed releases.