CVE-2023-20097 [Medium] | Code Injection in Wireless Lan Controller S…

A vulnerability in Cisco access points (AP) software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to inject arbitrary commands and execute them with root privileges. This vulnerability is due to improper input validation of commands that are issued from a wireless controller to an AP. An attacker with Administrator access to the CLI of the controller could exploit this vulnerability by issuing a command with crafted arguments. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain full root access on the AP.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-05-24	0.34%	0.21%	-0.13%
2	2026-05-16	0.36%	0.34%	-0.02%
3	2026-04-06	—	0.36%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-05-24

0.34%

0.21%

-0.13%

2026-05-16

0.36%

0.34%

-0.02%

2026-04-06

—

0.36%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
4.6	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:H) They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:C) Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius. Confidentiality (C:L) Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump. Integrity (I:L) Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	1.5	2.7	[email protected]
6.7	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:H) They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:U) Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems. Confidentiality (C:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:H) They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt. Availability (A:H) Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.	0.8	5.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

4.6

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H): They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C): Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L): Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L): Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

1.5

2.7

[email protected]

6.7

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H): They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U): Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H): They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H): Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.

0.8

5.9

[email protected]

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20097

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
cisco	wireless_lan_controller_software	< 8.10.183.0	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:wireless_lan_controller_software::::::::
cisco	aironet_access_point_software	< 17.9.0.135	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:aironet_access_point_software::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	< 16.12.8	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.1, < 17.3.6	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.4, < 17.6.5	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::
cisco	ios_xe	>= 17.7, < 17.9.2	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe::::::::

References for CVE-2023-20097

URL	Tags
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-aironetap-cmdinj-6bjT4FL8	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2023-20097 | Cisco Access Point Software Command Injection Vulnerability

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-20097

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-20097

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-20097

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-20097

References for CVE-2023-20097