Authenticated command injection in Cisco Small Business RV Series web management interface
CVE-2023-20118 is a command injection vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Small Business routers, including RV016, RV042, RV042G, RV082, RV320, and RV325. The flaw is caused by improper validation of user-supplied input in incoming HTTP requests processed by the management interface. An authenticated remote attacker with valid administrative credentials can send a crafted HTTP request to the device and execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system. Cisco states successful exploitation can result in root-level privileges on the affected router and unauthorized access to data.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
31 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A Cisco Small Business router command injection vulnerability leveraged in botnet activity against edge devices.
A critical vulnerability in Cisco Small Business RV-series routers exploited to compromise thousands of devices and build a global honeypot-like network (ViciousTrap).
A specific vulnerability (CVE-2023-20118) used by the PolarEdge-associated infrastructure (via 111.119.223.196) as an initial access/exploitation vector to spread a malicious shell script ("s"), which then facilitated further payload delivery in the described campaign.
A known security flaw affecting Cisco routers that was exploited to download a shell script over FTP, which then retrieved and executed the PolarEdge backdoor (botnet implant).
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.