How severe is CVE-2020-26919?

CVE-2020-26919 has a CVSS score of 9.8/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2020-26919?

CVE-2020-26919 affects the following products: netgear jgs516pe firmware.

How do I patch CVE-2020-26919?

Apply the netgear jgs516pe firmware security patch or hotfix for CVE-2020-26919 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.

How do I detect CVE-2020-26919 across my infrastructure?

Inventory every netgear jgs516pe firmware deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-26919 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2020-26919 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2020-26919, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-26919?

CVE-2020-26919 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 57.5%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2020-26919 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2020-26919 (Netgear JGS516PE Devices Missing Function Level Access Control Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-11-03. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-03. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2020-26919?

CVE-2020-26919 affects netgear jgs516pe firmware. Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2020-26919?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2020-26919, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2020-26919 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-26919 was published on October 9, 2020 and was last updated on June 17, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🛡️

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

CRITICAL severity

CVE-2020-26919 — Jgs516pe Firmware

CRITICAL

CVE-2020-26919 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in netgear jgs516pe firmware. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.

NETGEAR JGS516PE devices before 2.6.0.43 are affected by lack of access control at the function level.

Published

Oct 9, 2020

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

1 product

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 21, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.
CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2020-26919.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

57.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs99th percentile — riskier than 99% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-26919 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,415 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

NETGEAR JGS516PE devices before 2.6.0.43 are affected by lack of access control at the function level.

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

jgs516pe firmwarenetgear

< 2.6.0.43

range

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

NETGEAR JGS516PE devices before 2.6.0.43 are affected by lack of access …

cisa.govCISAJul 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vendor / appliance

Detect
Inventory every netgear jgs516pe firmware deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Fix
Apply the netgear jgs516pe firmware security patch or hotfix for CVE-2020-26919 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

How to detect CVE-2020-26919

A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:

nuclei -id cve-2020-26919 -u https://target

Template: NETGEAR ProSAFE Plus - Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution
Severity: critical
Impact: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device.
Remediation: Apply the latest firmware update provided by NETGEAR to mitigate this vulnerability.

Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (gy741), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.

Frequently Asked Questions

NETGEAR JGS516PE devices before 2.6.0.43 are affected by lack of access control at the function level.

O3 Security · Runtime Protection

Is CVE-2020-26919 being exploited in your environment?

Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.

Protect my workloads How runtime protection works

CVE-2020-26919 — Jgs516pe Firmware

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

EPSS Exploitation Probability

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Description

Affected Products

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

How to detect CVE-2020-26919

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CVE-2020-26919 being exploited in your environment?