Cisco Web Security Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the log subscription subsystem of the Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA) could allow an authenticated, local attacker to perform command injection and elevate privileges to root. The vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input on the web and command-line interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the affected device and injecting scripting commands in the scope of the log subscription subsystem. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root.
- Published
- May 3, 2019
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.6% · 49th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-20
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Report tools
Action score
31
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 31 / 40 · 7.8 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.6%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 7.8
- CNA · cisco
- 5.3
- 2.5 point gap
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Affected systems
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| cisco | web security appliance | cpe:2.3:a:cisco:web_security_appliance |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- cisco web security appliance10.5.2-072
- cisco web security appliance11.0.0-641
- cisco web security appliance11.5.0-fcs-614
- cisco web security appliancewsa10.5.0-fcs-000
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.
Cisco Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA)
- unspecified and later · before 10.1.4-017affected
- unspecified and later · before 10.5.4-018affected
- unspecified and later · before 11.5.2-020affected
- unspecified and later · before 11.7.0-406affected
Same product
cisco: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2021-1359Cisco Web Security Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability36Monitor
- CVE-2015-6298The admin web interface in Cisco AsyncOS 8.x before 8.0.8-113, 8.1.x and 8.5.x before 8.5.3-051, 8.6.x and 8.7.x before 8.7.0-171-LD, and 8.36Monitor
- CVE-2018-0410A vulnerability in the web proxy functionality of Cisco AsyncOS Software for Cisco Web Security Appliances could allow an unauthenticated, r35Monitor
- CVE-2015-6292The proxy-cache implementation in Cisco AsyncOS 8.0.x before 8.0.7-151, 8.1.x and 8.5.x before 8.5.2-004, 8.6.x and 8.7.x before 8.7.0-171-L32Monitor
- CVE-2015-6321Cisco AsyncOS before 8.5.7-042, 9.x before 9.1.0-032, 9.1.x before 9.1.1-023, and 9.5.x and 9.6.x before 9.6.0-042 on Email Security Applian32Monitor
- CVE-2015-6293Cisco AsyncOS 8.x before 8.0.8-113, 8.1.x and 8.5.x before 8.5.3-051, 8.6.x and 8.7.x before 8.7.0-171-LD, and 8.8.x before 8.8.0-085 on Web32Monitor
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
- Someone with local access to the system 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
- Local
- 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:3.1/AV:L/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
Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.