Cisco warns of FMC static credential flaw exploited in zero-day attacks

Cisco has issued a warning that a high-severity vulnerability in its Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) software, identified as CVE-2026-20316, is currently being exploited in zero-day attacks. The flaw stems from hardcoded static credentials for a low-privilege account within the FMC software, allowing unauthenticated attackers to remotely access systems and retrieve sensitive data. Although the CVSS score is 5.3, Cisco elevated the severity due to potential privilege escalation when combined with other vulnerabilities. Affected versions include multiple releases of the FMC software, though cloud-based variants remain unaffected. Cisco has released hotfixes for impacted versions and urges users to apply them immediately.