IRONSMITHINTEL
MEDIUMCVSS6.0
|
Actively Exploited
|CISA KEV|CVE-2024-20399|Auth: high — administrative privileges|Reboot: required|Manual only

Cisco NX-OS Command Injection Vulnerability

Cisco NX-OS contains a command injection vulnerability in the command line interface (CLI) that could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device.

Published Jul 1, 2024 · Updated May 16, 2026
Why patchRisk explained in plain English
Worst-case scenarioIf unpatched

A local attacker, with administrative privileges, can achieve full data confidentiality loss, arbitrary modification of data. Federal agencies are required to remediate by 2024-07-23 under CISA BOD 22-01.

How the attack worksNo clicks needed

This is a OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Cisco NX-OS. A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco NX-OS Software could allow an authenticated user in possession of Administrator credentials to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of arguments that are passed to specific configuration CLI commands. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by including crafted input as the argument of an affected configuration CLI command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with the privileges of root. Note: To successfully exploit this vulnerability on a Cisco NX-OS device, an attacker must have Administrator credentials. The following Cisco devices already allow administrative users to access the underlying operating system through the bash-shell feature, so, for these devices, this vulnerability does not grant any additional privileges: Nexus 3000 Series Switches Nexus 7000 Series Switches that are running Cisco NX-OS Software releases 8.1(1) and later Nexus 9000 Series Switches in standalone NX-OS mode Exploitation requires local access, low attack complexity, an administrative account, and no user interaction required.

Am I affected?Quick check

Probably yes if any of these apply:

Network Security Team
Firewall Administrators
IT Security
Running nx-os: 6.2\(2\), 6.2\(2a\), 6.2\(6\), 6.2\(6a\), 6.2\(6b\), 6.2\(8\), 6.2\(8a\), 6.2\(8b\), 6.2\(10\), 6.2\(12\), 6.2\(14\), 6.2\(16\), 6.2\(18\), 6.2\(20\), 6.2\(20a\), 6.2\(22\), 6.2\(24\), 6.2\(24a\), 7.2\(0\)d1\(1\), 7.2\(1\)d1\(1\), 7.2\(2\)d1\(1\), 7.2\(2\)d1\(2\), 7.3\(0\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(0\)dx\(1\), 7.3\(1\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(2\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(2\)d1\(2\), 7.3\(2\)d1\(3\), 7.3\(2\)d1\(3a\), 7.3\(3\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(4\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(5\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(6\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(7\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(8\)d1\(1\), 7.3\(9\)d1\(1\), 8.0\(1\), 8.1\(1\), 8.1\(2\), 8.1\(2a\), 8.2\(1\), 8.2\(2\), 8.2\(3\), 8.2\(4\), 8.2\(5\), 8.2\(6\), 8.2\(7\), 8.2\(7a\), 8.2\(8\), 8.2\(9\), 8.2\(10\), 8.2\(11\), 8.3\(1\), 8.3\(2\), 8.4\(1\), 8.4\(2\), 8.4\(3\), 8.4\(4\), 8.4\(4a\), 8.4\(5\), 8.4\(6\), 8.4\(6a\), 8.4\(7\), 8.4\(8\), 8.4\(9\), 6.2\(1\), 6.2\(3\), 6.2\(5\), 6.2\(5a\), 6.2\(5b\), 6.2\(7\), 6.2\(9\), 6.2\(9a\), 6.2\(9b\), 6.2\(9c\), 6.2\(11\), 6.2\(11b\), 6.2\(11c\), 6.2\(11d\), 6.2\(11e\), 6.2\(13\), 6.2\(13a\), 6.2\(13b\), 6.2\(15\), 6.2\(17\), 6.2\(19\), 6.2\(21\), 6.2\(23\), 6.2\(25\), 6.2\(27\), 6.2\(29\), 6.2\(31\), 6.2\(33\), 7.3\(0\)dy\(1\), 7.3\(1\)dy\(1\), 8.1\(1a\), 8.1\(1b\), 8.4\(1a\), 8.4\(2a\), 8.4\(2b\), 8.4\(2c\), 8.4\(2d\), 8.4\(2e\), 8.4\(2f\), 8.5\(1\), 9.2\(1\), 9.2\(1a\), 9.2\(2\), 9.3\(1\), 9.3\(2\), 9.3\(2a\), 9.4\(1\), 9.4\(1a\), 9.4\(2\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(1\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(1a\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(2\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(2a\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(3\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(3a\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(4\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(4a\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(5\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(5a\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(5b\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(6\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(7\), 6.0\(2\)a6\(8\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(1\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(2\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(3\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(4\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(4a\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(5\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(6\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(7\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(7a\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(7b\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(8\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(9\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(10\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(10a\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(11\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(11a\), 6.0\(2\)a8\(11b\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(1\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(1a\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(2\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(2a\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(3\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(3a\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(4\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(4a\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(5\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(5a\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(5b\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(5c\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(6\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(7\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(8\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(9\), 6.0\(2\)u6\(10\), 7.0\(3\)f1\(1\), 7.0\(3\)f2\(1\), 7.0\(3\)f2\(2\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(1\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(2\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(3\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(3a\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(3c\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(4\), 7.0\(3\)f3\(5\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(1\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(2\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(3\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(4\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(5\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(6\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(7\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(8\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(8a\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(8b\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(8z\), 7.0\(3\)i4\(9\), 7.0\(3\)i5\(1\), 7.0\(3\)i5\(2\), 7.0\(3\)i6\(1\), 7.0\(3\)i6\(2\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(1\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(2\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(3\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(4\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(5\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(5a\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(6\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(7\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(8\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(9\), 7.0\(3\)i7\(10\), 9.2\(2t\), 9.2\(2v\), 9.2\(3\), 9.2\(4\), 9.3\(3\), 9.3\(4\), 9.3\(5\), 9.3\(6\), 9.3\(7\), 9.3\(7a\), 9.3\(8\), 9.3\(9\), 9.3\(10\), 9.3\(11\), 9.3\(12\), 9.3\(13\), 10.1\(1\), 10.1\(2\), 10.2\(1\), 10.2\(1q\), 10.2\(2\), 10.2\(3\), 10.2\(4\), 10.2\(5\), 10.2\(6\), 10.2\(7\), 10.2\(8\), 10.3\(1\), 10.3\(2\), 10.3\(3\), 10.3\(4a\), 10.3\(5\), 10.3\(99w\), 10.3\(99x\), 10.4\(1\), 10.4\(2\), 7.1\(0\)n1\(1\), 7.1\(0\)n1\(1a\), 7.1\(0\)n1\(1b\), 7.1\(1\)n1\(1\), 7.1\(2\)n1\(1\), 7.1\(3\)n1\(1\), 7.1\(3\)n1\(2\), 7.1\(4\)n1\(1\), 7.1\(5\)n1\(1\), 7.1\(5\)n1\(1b\), 7.3\(0\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(1\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(2\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(3\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(4\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(5\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(6\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(7\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(7\)n1\(1a\), 7.3\(7\)n1\(1b\), 7.3\(8\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(9\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(10\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(11\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(12\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(13\)n1\(1\), 7.3\(14\)n1\(1\)
Real-world incidentsWhat we've seen

CISA added this CVE to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-07-02 based on evidence of active exploitation in the wild. Federal agencies required to remediate by 2024-07-23.

How to patch

Manual remediation steps

Apply the Vendor Patch

This vulnerability is in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — apply the vendor's security update as soon as possible.

CISA required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

References

    1
    Vendor advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-nxos-cmd-injection-xD9OhyOP
    1
    NVD entry: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-20399
    1
    CISA KEV: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-20399
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