Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2023-20269
CRITICAL
Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionNVD
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.
AnalysisAI
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. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Technical ContextAI
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-288. 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 products include: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software, Cisco Firepower Threat Defense.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
Buffer overflow in the IKEv1 and IKEv2 implementations in Cisco ASA Software before 8.4(7.30), 8.7 before 8.7(1.18), 9.0
Update: On November 5, 2025, Cisco became aware of a new attack variant against devices running Cisco Secure ASA Softwar
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software 8.x before 8.2(5.48), 8.3 before 8.3(2.40), 8.4 before 8.4(7.9), 8.6 be
A vulnerability in Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) code in the Clientless SSL VPN functionality of Cisco ASA Software,
A vulnerability in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN functionality of the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Softw
A vulnerability in the web services interface of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Th
A vulnerability in the web services interface for remote access VPN features of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA)
A vulnerability in the authorization subsystem of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software could allow an authen
A vulnerability in the web services interface of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Th
A vulnerability in the web interface of the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) could allow an unauthenticated, remo
The encryption-processing feature in Cisco libSRTP before 1.5.3 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via
Stack-based buffer overflow in the DCERPC inspection engine on Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 series devi
Same technique Authentication Bypass
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External POC / Exploit Code
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