CVE-2023-20118 — Cisco Small Business RV Series Routers Command Injection Vulnerability

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

• Documented mitigation — sec.cloudapps.cisco.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

CISA required action CISA

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

US federal deadline: Mar 24, 2025 — passed 570 day(s) ago

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Cisco Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware, Cisco Rv016 Firmware, Cisco Rv042 Firmware…).
2. Treat as emergency remediation: the CVE is in CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).
3. Apply the documented mitigations until a definitive fix is available.
4. EPSS ahead of 99% of scored CVEs: prioritize it in the patch queue.
5. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (injection), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-77 · Command Injection

Other CVEs with this weakness →

CISA KEV details CISA

CISA lists a CVE once it has evidence of exploitation against real targets.

CISA records ransomware use only for campaigns it has confirmed, so “Unknown” means unrecorded, not ruled out. The deadline binds US federal agencies; for everyone else it is a reference date.

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 12, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 3 reading(s) · max 54.11%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

• Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).
• Look for parameters with command/query metacharacters and unexpected child processes of the service.
• Hunt retroactively in logs from before Mar 3, 2025 (KEV listing): exploitation may have started earlier.

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

• 2026
• Affected products added · cisco/cisco small business rv series router firmware
  Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• SSVC assessment updated
  Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
• Record published
  Oct 13, 2026
• Fix documented
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• Affected products added · cisco/rv016 firmware, cisco/rv042 firmware, cisco/rv042g firmware, cisco/rv082 firmware, cisco/rv320 firmware, cisco/rv3
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• CVSS changed · 7.2
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• Source status changed · → Analyzed
  Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
• Added to CISA KEV (detected)
  Oct 13, 2026 · CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
• Record created in this database
  Oct 13, 2026 · CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
• 2025
• Added to CISA KEV catalog
  Mar 2, 2025 · CISA
• 2023
• CVE published
  Apr 13, 2023 · cisco

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

• 2× References added · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026
• 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

4 on the record

• sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sbr042-multi-v
  Mitigation, Vendor Advisory, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
  US Government Resource, NIST National Vulnerability Database
• github.com/advisories/GHSA-gr43-pwpc-mp54
  GitHub Security Advisories
• nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20118
  GitHub Security Advisories

Elsewhere on this site

Related CVEs (same products)

• High CVE-2019-15271 Cisco RV Series Routers Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability KEV Nov 26, 2019
• High CVE-2019-1653 Cisco Small Business RV320 and RV325 Routers Information Disclosure Vulnerability KEV Jan 24, 2019
• High CVE-2019-1652 Cisco Small Business Routers Improper Input Validation Vulnerability KEV Jan 24, 2019

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

• No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
• No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
• No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2023-20118 is "Cisco Small Business RV Series Routers Command Injection Vulnerability", rated High. It affects Cisco Small Business RV Series Router Firmware (Cisco); versions are in the scope table. It is in CISA KEV: there is evidence of real-world exploitation. CVSS 7.2 describes technical severity. EPSS 54.11% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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