NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

CVE-2023-20198: Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software.

CriticalCVSS 10.0 · v3.1KEVWeaponized No fix recorded

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Now (action score 100/100)

CISA has confirmed exploitation in the wild (Oct 16, 2023). Remediation deadline for US federal agencies: Oct 20, 2023.
A ready-made attack module is public (Metasploit, Nuclei); exploiting it takes no special expertise.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 99.7% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 99.9% of all records.
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.
According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.
Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Patch today or shut off access. Until a fix is released, restrict access to the affected component and follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · CISA KEV · FIRST EPSS

Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues. The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination. This allowed the user to log in with normal user access. The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco has assigned CVE-2023-20273 to this issue. CVE-2023-20198 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 10.0. CVE-2023-20273 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 7.2. Both of these CVEs are being tracked by CSCwh87343.

Pre-auth

BDU:2023-06875

Published: Oct 16, 2023
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 99.7% · 99th percentile
CWE: CWE-420

Report tools

JSON

Action score

100

Now

Patch today or shut off access.

CVSS: 40 / 40 · 10.0 / 10
CISA KEV: 30 / 30 · Listed
EPSS: 30 / 30 · 99.7%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: active
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: 10.0
CNA · cisco: 10.0; agree

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Actively exploited in the wild

CISA added this to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on Oct 16, 2023. That signals real attacks, not theory.

Remediation deadline for US federal agencies: Oct 20, 2023.

Get told when this record changes

In CISA KEV: exploitation in the wild confirmed
Weaponized exploit exists
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Is your version affected? Check it

Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
cisco	ios xe	cpe:2.3:o:cisco:ios_xe
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5200 firmware	cpe:2.3:o:rockwellautomation:allen-bradley_stratix_5200_firmware
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5200	cpe:2.3:h:rockwellautomation:allen-bradley_stratix_5200
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5800 firmware	cpe:2.3:o:rockwellautomation:allen-bradley_stratix_5800_firmware
rockwellautomation	allen-bradley stratix 5800	cpe:2.3:h:rockwellautomation:allen-bradley_stratix_5800

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 IOS XE Software
- 16.1.1, 16.1.2, 16.1.3, 16.2.1, 16.2.2, 16.3.1, 16.3.2, 16.3.3, 16.3.1a, 16.3.4, 16.3.5, 16.3.5b … (+28)affected

Affected versions · NVD (6)

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

cisco ios xe16.12 and later · before 16.12.10a
cisco ios xe17.3 and later · before 17.3.8a
cisco ios xe17.6 and later · before 17.6.6a
cisco ios xe17.9 and later · before 17.9.4a
rockwellautomation allen-bradley stratix 5200 firmwarebefore 17.12.02
rockwellautomation allen-bradley stratix 5800 firmwarebefore 17.12.02

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2023-20273A vulnerability in the web UI feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to inject commands with the…KEV
86Now
CVE-2018-0151A vulnerability in the quality of service (QoS) subsystem of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated…KEV
73This week
CVE-2025-20188A vulnerability in the Out-of-Band Access Point (AP) Image Download, the Clean Air Spectral Recording, and the client debug bundles…
48Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2023-20231Sep 27, 2023 · A vulnerability in the web UI of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform an injection attack against…
35Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2023-20235Oct 4, 2023 · A vulnerability in the on-device application development workflow feature for the Cisco IOx application hosting infrastructure in Cisco IOS…
35Monitor
Later →CVE-2024-20259Mar 27, 2024 · A vulnerability in the DHCP snooping feature of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected…
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

Weaponized

A ready exploit tool or active in-the-wild use is known for this vulnerability. This should be your top priority.

Evidence

Metasploit module ×3
Nuclei detection template ×1
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub ×36

Noroxi does not host or link to exploit code. Metasploit module names and Nuclei template ids are shown (names, not code); Exploit-DB entries and PoC repositories are given as counts only.

Public exploit evidence
Source	Kind	Date
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	36 repositories	2023-10-17 → 2026-10-19
Metasploit module	auxiliary/admin/http/cisco_ios_xe_cli_exec_cve_2023_20198Cisco IOX XE unauthenticated Command Line Interface (CLI) executionauxiliary	2023-10-16
Metasploit module	auxiliary/admin/http/cisco_ios_xe_os_exec_cve_2023_20273Cisco IOX XE unauthenticated OS command executionauxiliary	2023-10-16
Metasploit module	exploit/linux/misc/cisco_ios_xe_rceCisco IOX XE Unauthenticated RCE Chainexploit	2023-10-16
Nuclei detection template	Nuclei template CVE-2023-20198	—

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.