CVE-2026-78020 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2026-78020
Vulnerability Scoring

7.5
/10
Very High Risk

Highly exploitable, CVE-2026-78020 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: High
    Exploits require significant effort and special conditions.
  • Attack Vector: Network
    Vulnerability is exploitable over a network without physical access.
  • Privileges Required: None
    No privileges are required for exploitation.
  • Scope: Unchanged
    Exploit remains within the originally vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: Required
    User interaction is necessary for successful exploitation.

CVE-2026-78020 Details

Status: Received on 09 Oct 2026, 09:17 UTC

Published on: 09 Oct 2026, 09:17 UTC

CVSS Release: version 3

CVSS3 Source

security_alert@emc.com

CVSS3 Type

Secondary

CVSS3 Vector

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

CVE-2026-78020 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2026-78020: Dell Secure Connect Gateway (SCG) Policy Manager, versions prior to 5.34.00.16, contains an Improper Certificate Validation vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with remote access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Denial of service, Information disclosure, and Remote execution.

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2026-78020

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2026-78020 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2026-78020

CVE-2026-78020 presents a challenge to exploit due to its high attack complexity, but the absence of privilege requirements still makes it a viable target for skilled attackers. A thorough security review is advised.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2026-78020, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2026-78020, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: High
    Exploiting CVE-2026-78020 can result in unauthorized access to sensitive data, severely compromising data privacy.
  • Integrity: High
    CVE-2026-78020 could allow unauthorized modifications to data, potentially affecting system reliability and trust.
  • Availability: High
    CVE-2026-78020 can disrupt system operations, potentially causing complete denial of service (DoS).

CVE-2026-78020 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-295

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Creating a Rogue Certification Authority Certificate CAPEC-459 An adversary exploits a weakness resulting from using a hashing algorithm with weak collision resistance to generate certificate signing requests (CSR) that contain collision blocks in their "to be signed" parts. The adversary submits one CSR to be signed by a trusted certificate authority then uses the signed blob to make a second certificate appear signed by said certificate authority. Due to the hash collision, both certificates, though different, hash to the same value and so the signed blob works just as well in the second certificate. The net effect is that the adversary's second X.509 certificate, which the Certification Authority has never seen, is now signed and validated by that Certification Authority.
  • Signature Spoofing by Improper Validation CAPEC-475 An adversary exploits a cryptographic weakness in the signature verification algorithm implementation to generate a valid signature without knowing the key.

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