---
title: "CVE-2026-20291: Cisco Snort 3 - Privilege Escalation"
description: "Cisco Snort 3 contains an improper privilege management vulnerability caused by flawed privilege handling, letting attackers escalate privileges, exploit requires internal conditions."
url: https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/CVE-2026-20291/
---

# CVE-2026-20291 Cisco Snort 3 - Privilege Escalation

Cisco Snort 3 contains an improper privilege management vulnerability caused by flawed privilege handling, letting attackers escalate privileges, exploit requires internal conditions.

CVSS base score 7.8 /10

High

CISA KEV

Not listed

Public exploit

None known

[View the NVD record ↗](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20291)

## Details

Type

Privilege Escalation

Impact

Privilege Escalation

CVSS vector

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

Published

21 October 2026

Updated

22 October 2026

Weakness

[CWE-269](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/269.html)

## Vendor fix

Update to the latest Snort 3 version with security hardening fixes.

Patching closes this CVE. It does not tell you which of your systems run the affected version, or what else is exposed alongside them.

## References

- [https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20291](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20291)
- [https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-hardening-snort3-ybgmhTQe](https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-hardening-snort3-ybgmhTQe)

[← All CVEs](https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/)

## What this record can't tell you

- Whether you run the affected software, and where
- Whether an attacker can actually reach and exploit it
- The misconfigurations that never get a CVE number
- What it would cost the business, ranked into what to fix first

Panop answers these inside your environment, for this CVE and every other finding.

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