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CVE-2022-20871· NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

Cisco Secure Web Appliance Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the web management interface of Cisco AsyncOS for Cisco Secure Web Appliance, formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance (WSA), could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform a command injection and elevate privileges to root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input for the web interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the system and sending a crafted HTTP packet to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root. To successfully exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need at least read-only credentials.Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.Attention: Simplifying the Cisco portfolio includes the renaming of security products under one brand: Cisco Secure. For more information, see .

HighCVSS 8.8 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Nov 15, 2024
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
1.9% · 79th percentile
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Report tools

JSON

Action score

36

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
35 / 40 · 8.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
1 / 30 · 1.9%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
8.8
CNA · cisco
6.3
2.5 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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

VendorProduct
ciscoasyncos
ciscosecure web appliance virtual s1000v
ciscosecure web appliance virtual s100v
ciscosecure web appliance virtual s300v
ciscosecure web appliance virtual s600v
ciscosecure web appliance s196
ciscosecure web appliance s396
ciscosecure web appliance s696

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • cisco asyncos12.5.1-011
  • cisco asyncos12.5.2-007
  • cisco asyncos12.5.2-011
  • cisco asyncos12.5.3-002
  • cisco asyncos12.5.4-005
  • cisco asyncos12.5.4-011
  • cisco asyncos14.0.2-012
  • cisco asyncos14.1.0-032
  • cisco asyncos14.1.0-041
  • cisco asyncos14.1.0-047
  • cisco asyncos14.5.0-498

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 Secure Web Appliance

    • 12.5.3-002, 14.1.0-032, 14.1.0-047, 14.1.0-041, 14.0.2-012, 12.5.1-011, 12.5.2-007, 12.5.2-011, 14.5.0-498, 12.5.4-005, 12.5.4-011affected

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2025-20393Cisco Secure Email Gateway and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager Remote Command Execution VulnerabilityKEV
    80Now
  • CVE-2026-76461Cisco Secure Email Gateway SQL Injection VulnerabilityKEV
    77This week
  • CVE-2022-20868A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Email Security Appliance, Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager and Cisco Secure
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2019-15956Cisco Web Security Appliance Unauthorized Device Reset Vulnerability
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2018-15460Cisco Email Security Appliance URL Filtering Denial of Service Vulnerability
    35Monitor
  • CVE-2019-1886Cisco Web Security Appliance HTTPS Certificate Denial of Service Vulnerability
    34Monitor

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.

EPSS, last 120 days

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 researchers

Finders, 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-78 · Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Root cause

User input is inserted as text into a shell command. The shell may interpret special characters in the input as part of the command.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-78 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

ts
const host = req.body.host;exec("ping -c 1 " + host, onResult);

Fixed

ts
const host = req.body.host;if (!/^[a-z0-9.-]{1,253}$/i.test(host)) return res.sendStatus(400);execFile("ping", ["-c", "1", host], onResult);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

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 help

Change 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.

All records