Critical · published October 21, 2026
A vulnerability in the database service feature of Cisco Expressway Series could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker with network access to a Cisco Expressway device to execute arbitrary operating system commands as root.
This vulnerability is due to the use of persistent cookies. Additionally, there is insufficient validation of client certificates when the TLS Verify Mode is set to Enabled for clustering, which means that client certificates are not validated. An attacker with possession of the cookies could exploit this vulnerability by connecting to the database service and invoking specific remote procedure call (RPC) commands. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands as root on the underlying operating system of an affected device.
Note: Cisco Expressway Series refers to Cisco Expressway Core (Expressway-C) devices and Cisco Expressway Edge (Expressway-E) devices.