CVE-2023-20269
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense Unauthorized Access Vulnerability
This vulnerability is in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: attackers are using it. If you run Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense, fix it now.
CISA required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions for group-lock and vpn-simultaneous-logins or discontinue use of the product for unsupported devices.
US federal civilian agencies must remediate by Oct 4, 2023.
Patch status
No official fix confirmed yet
Until a fix ships, follow the vendor's mitigations and CISA's required action, limit exposure of affected systems, and watch this record for a patch.
Description
A vulnerability in the remote access VPN feature of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a brute force attack in an attempt to identify valid username and password combinations or an authenticated, remote attacker to establish a clientless SSL VPN session with an unauthorized user. This vulnerability is due to improper separation of authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) between the remote access VPN feature and the HTTPS management and site-to-site VPN features. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by specifying a default connection profile/tunnel group while conducting a brute force attack or while establishing a clientless SSL VPN session using valid credentials. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to achieve one or both of the following: Identify valid credentials that could then be used to establish an unauthorized remote access VPN session. Establish a clientless SSL VPN session (only when running Cisco ASA Software Release 9.16 or earlier). Notes: Establishing a client-based remote access VPN tunnel is not possible as these default connection profiles/tunnel groups do not and cannot have an IP address pool configured. This vulnerability does not allow an attacker to bypass authentication. To successfully establish a remote access VPN session, valid credentials are required, including a valid second factor if multi-factor authentication (MFA) is configured. Cisco will release software updates that address this vulnerability. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database. Official vulnerability data, reproduced as published.
Affected products
| Product | Vendor | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense | Cisco | KEV |
Sources: KEV = CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Version details have not been published yet.
Intelligence timeline
Developments from the last 30 days, newest first.
- CVSS scoredUpdateKEV
CVE-2023-20269 scored CVSS 9.1: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense Unauthorized Access Vulnerability
CISA lists this as exploited in the wild and known to be used in ransomware campaigns. Unpatched Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense systems are exposed to active attacks now.
Basis: NIST National Vulnerability Database
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Coverage
We have not published a story about this vulnerability yet.