CVEvulnerability

CVE-2023-20269

9.1 CRITICAL Known exploited Published 2023-09-06 Modified 2026-08-11 Official page ↗

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense Unauthorized Access Vulnerability — Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance and Firepower Threat Defense contain an unauthorized access vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a brute force attack in an attempt to identify valid username and password combinations or establish a clientless SSL VPN session with an unauthorized user.

Added to KEV
2023-09-13
Remediation due
2023-10-04
Ransomware use
Known
Required action
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions for group-lock and vpn-simultaneous-logins or discontinue use of the product for unsupported devices.
Notes
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-asaftd-ravpn-auth-8LyfCkeC; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20269
Status
Analyzed
Published
2023-09-06
Last modified
2026-08-11
Assigner
[email protected]
CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
5.0 MEDIUM — CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
9.1 CRITICAL — CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Weaknesses
CWE-288, CWE-863

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.

Affected configurations

• cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.1 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.1.5 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.1.7 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.8 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.14 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.15 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.17 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.20 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.24 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.26 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.28 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.33 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.35 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.2.38 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.8 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.11 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.14 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.16 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.18 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.21 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.26 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.3.29 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.3 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.7 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.8 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.10 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.12 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.15 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.17 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.20 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.22 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.25 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.26 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.29 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.32 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.33 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.34 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.35 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.39 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.40 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.41 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.43 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.44 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.45 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.46 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.8.4.48 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.1 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.1.2 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.1.3 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.2 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.2.1 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.2.4 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.2.5 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.2.9 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.3 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.3.2 • cisco adaptive security appliance software 9.12.3.7 … and 186 more

Related

Weakness · CWE (2)

  • CWE-288 Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel weakness
  • CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization weakness

References