A vulnerability in the Smart Licensing Manager service of the Cisco Firepower 4100 Series Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Firepower 9300
A vulnerability in the Smart Licensing Manager service of the Cisco Firepower 4100 Series Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Firepower 9300 Security Appliance could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject arbitrary commands that could be executed with root privileges. The vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of certain Smart Licensing configuration parameters. An authenticated attacker could exploit the vulnerability by configuring a malicious URL within the affected feature. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges. This vulnerability affects the following Cisco Firepower Security products running FX-OS code trains 1.1.3, 1.1.4, and 2.0.1 (versions 2.1.1, 2.2.1, and 2.2.2 are not affected): Firepower 4100 Series Next-Generation Firewall and Firepower 9300 Security Appliance. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvb86863.
- Published
- Nov 2, 2017
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 3.8% · 90th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-20
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Report tools
Action score
36
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 35 / 40 · 8.8 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 1 / 30 · 3.8%
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| cisco | firepower extensible operating system | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:firepower_extensible_operating_system |
| cisco | firepower 4110 next-generation firewall | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:firepower_4110_next-generation_firewall |
| cisco | firepower 4120 next-generation firewall | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:firepower_4120_next-generation_firewall |
| cisco | firepower 4140 next-generation firewall | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:firepower_4140_next-generation_firewall |
| cisco | firepower 4150 next-generation firewall | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:firepower_4150_next-generation_firewall |
| cisco | firepower 9300 security appliance | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:firepower_9300_security_appliance |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- cisco firepower extensible operating systemup to 1.1.3 inclusive
- cisco firepower extensible operating system1.1.4
- cisco firepower extensible operating system2.0.1
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (cisco). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
n/a Cisco Firepower 4100 Series NGFW and Firepower 9300 Security Appliance
- Cisco Firepower 4100 Series NGFW and Firepower 9300 Security Applianceaffected
Same product
cisco: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2015-6435An unspecified CGI script in Cisco FX-OS before 1.1.2 on Firepower 9000 devices and Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Manager before 2.2(42Plan
- CVE-2020-3172Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Cisco Discovery Protocol Arbitrary Code Execution and Denial of Service Vulnerability36Monitor
- CVE-2020-3456Cisco FXOS Software Firepower Chassis Manager Cross-Site Request Forgery Vulnerability35Monitor
- CVE-2017-3883A vulnerability in the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) implementation of Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System (FX35Monitor
- CVE-2020-3517Cisco FXOS and NX-OS Software Cisco Fabric Services Denial of Service Vulnerability34Monitor
- CVE-2020-3459Cisco FXOS Software for Firepower 4100/9300 Series Command Injection Vulnerability31Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
- A low-privileged account is enough.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- high · data can be read
- Integrity
- high · data or configuration can be modified
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- High
- Integrity impact
- High
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-20 · Improper Input ValidationCVSS vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
nvd-primary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
- Buffer Overflow via Environment VariablesCAPEC-10likelihood: High · High
- Server Side Include (SSI) InjectionCAPEC-101likelihood: High · High
- Cross Zone ScriptingCAPEC-104likelihood: Medium · High
- Command Line Execution through SQL InjectionCAPEC-108likelihood: Low · Very High
- Object Relational Mapping InjectionCAPEC-109likelihood: Low · High
- SQL Injection through SOAP Parameter TamperingCAPEC-110likelihood: High · Very High
- Double EncodingCAPEC-120likelihood: Low · Medium
- Subverting Environment Variable ValuesCAPEC-13likelihood: High · Very High
ATT&CK techniques
- Obfuscated Files or InformationT1027
- Masquerading: Invalid Code SignatureT1036.001
- Steal Web Session CookieT1539
- Subvert Trust Controls: Code SigningT1553.002
- Impair Defenses:Impair Command History LoggingT1562.003
- Hijack Execution Flow:Dynamic Linker HijackingT1574.006
- Hijack Execution Flow:Path Interception by PATH Environment VariableT1574.007
Noroxi analysis
No Noroxi analysis for this record yet
We don't hand-write analysis for all 385,000+ vulnerabilities; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.
We use this product, ask for helpChange log
No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.
References
- www.securityfocus.com/bid/101661
- tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20171101-fpwr
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.