CVE-2026-42406

BIG-IP and BIG-IQ privilege escalation vulnerability

High8.5EPSS 0.15%

Published: 13 May 2026
Updated: 14 May 2026
Reserved: 30 Apr 2026
Assigned by: f5

Description

A vulnerability exists in BIG-IP and BIG-IQ systems where a highly privileged, authenticated attacker with at least the Certificate Manager role can modify configuration objects that allow running arbitrary commands. Note: Software versions which have reached End of Technical Support (EoTS) are not evaluated.

Scores

CVSS scores of CVE-2026-42406, by who scored it
Scored by	CVSS	Score	Vector
f5CNA (assigner)	4.0	High8.5	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
f5CNA (assigner)	3.1	High8.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
f5CNA (assigner)	3.1	Medium6.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVDNVD · Analyzed	4.0	High8.5	CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days): 0.15% · top 96% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
CISA SSVC: Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.5.

Weakness

CWE-267 Privilege Defined With Unsafe Actions (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-267 and its CVEs

Affected products

F5 · BIG-IP
- unaffected 21.1.0 – < *
- affected 21.0.0 – < 21.0.0.2
- affected 17.5.0 – < 17.5.1.6
- affected 17.1.0 – < 17.1.3.2
- affected 16.1.0 – < *
F5 · BIG-IQ
- affected 8.4.0 – < *

References (1)

https://my.f5.com/manage/s/article/K000160971 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisorypatch

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2026-42406](https://trackcve.app/badge/CVE-2026-42406.svg)](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2026-42406)

Record last updated 14 May 2026, 03:56 UTC.