Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Software Packet Flood Denial of Service Vulnerability
A vulnerability in the packet processing functionality of Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to inefficient memory management. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a high rate of IPv4 or IPv6 traffic through an affected device. This traffic would need to match a configured block action in an access control policy. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause a memory exhaustion condition on the affected device, which would result in a DoS for traffic transiting the device, as well as sluggish performance of the management interface. Once the flood is stopped, performance should return to previous states.
- Published
- May 6, 2020
- Updated
- Aug 11, 2026
- EPSS
- 1.8% · 78th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-400
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Report tools
Action score
31
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 30 / 40 · 7.5 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 1 / 30 · 1.8%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- yes
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- 7.5
- CNA · cisco
- 7.5
- agree
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 | secure firewall threat defense | cpe:2.3:a:cisco:secure_firewall_threat_defense |
| cisco | asa 5505 firmware | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asa_5505_firmware |
| cisco | asa 5505 | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:asa_5505 |
| cisco | asa 5510 firmware | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asa_5510_firmware |
| cisco | asa 5510 | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:asa_5510 |
| cisco | asa 5512-x firmware | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asa_5512-x_firmware |
| cisco | asa 5512-x | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:asa_5512-x |
| cisco | asa 5515-x firmware | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asa_5515-x_firmware |
| cisco | asa 5515-x | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:asa_5515-x |
| cisco | asa 5520 firmware | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asa_5520_firmware |
| cisco | asa 5520 | cpe:2.3:h:cisco:asa_5520 |
| cisco | asa 5525-x firmware | cpe:2.3:o:cisco:asa_5525-x_firmware |
and 13 more
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- cisco asa 5505 firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5510 firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5512-x firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5515-x firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5520 firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5525-x firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5540 firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5545-x firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5550 firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5555-x firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5580 firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco asa 5585-x firmware9.10(1.3)
- cisco secure firewall threat defense6.4.0 and later · before 6.4.0.9
- cisco secure firewall threat defense6.3.0 and later · before 6.3.0.6
- cisco secure firewall threat defense6.2.3 and later · before 6.2.3.16
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 Firepower Threat Defense Software
- n/aaffected
Same product
cisco: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2020-3259Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software Web Services Information Disclosure VulnerabilityKEV82Now
- CVE-2020-3580Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software Web Services Interface Cross-Site Scripting VulnerabilitiesKEV80Now
- CVE-2020-3187Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software Web Services Path Traversal Vulnerability65This week
- CVE-2024-20481A vulnerability in the Remote Access VPN (RAVPN) service of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat DefeKEV58Plan
- CVE-2022-20759Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software Web Services Interface Privilege Escalation Vulnerability43Plan
- CVE-2020-3562Cisco Firepower 2100 Series SSL/TLS Inspection Denial of Service Vulnerability35Monitor
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.
- No account or password is required.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- none
- Integrity
- none
- Availability
- high · the service can be disrupted
- Attack vector
- Network
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality impact
- None
- Integrity impact
- None
- Availability impact
- High
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-400 · Uncontrolled Resource ConsumptionCVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
nvd-primary
Root cause
Code that parses nested structures sets no depth or size limit. A small input can turn into a disproportionate processing load.
The bug in code
The whole CWE-400 classA representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.
Vulnerable
function expand(node) { return node.children.map(expand);}Fixed
const MAX_DEPTH = 32;function expand(node, depth = 0) { if (depth > MAX_DEPTH) throw new Error("too deep"); return node.children.map((c) => expand(c, depth + 1));}Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
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.