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5.0
CVSS
Medium

CVE-2023-20269

PUBLISHED

A vulnerability in the remote access VPN feature of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD)...

Exploited in the wild Used in malware Remote Low complexity No user interaction
Vendor
Cisco
Product
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software, Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software
Published
Sep 06, 2023
EPSS
—

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.

windows cisa malware ransomware edge nessus_scanner

CVSS scores

CVSS v3.1 5.0 Medium

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N

Exploitation status

Exploited in the wild

Recorded 2023-09-13 00:00:00 UTC · Source

Used in malware

Recorded 2023-09-13 00:00:00 UTC · Source

SSVC decision points

Exploitation
active
Automatable
No
Technical impact
partial

References

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Catalogues that list this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability.

Source Added
CISA Sep 13, 2023

Scanner integrations

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/182523 Jun 02, 2025

Timeline

  • CVE ID Reserved

  • CVE Published to Public

  • Exploit Used in Malware

  • Added to KEVIntel

  • Detected by Nessus