Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2023-20009


A vulnerability in the Web UI and administrative CLI of the Cisco Secure Email Gateway (ESA) and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager (SMA) could allow an authenticated remote attacker and or authenticated local attacker to escalate their privilege level and gain root access. The attacker has to have a valid user credential with at least a [[privilege of operator - validate actual name]]. The vulnerability is due to the processing of a specially crafted SNMP configuration file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the targeted device and uploading a specially crafted SNMP configuration file that when uploaded could allow for the execution of commands as root. An exploit could allow the attacker to gain root access on the device.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 6.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from cisco, from cisco organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2023, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2023-03-01T08:15:11.767

Last Modified

2024-11-21T07:40:20.017

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 6.5 (MEDIUM)

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-20
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-434

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application cisco email_security_appliance < 12.5.3-041 Yes
Application cisco email_security_appliance < 13.0.5-007 Yes
Application cisco email_security_appliance < 13.5.4-038 Yes
Application cisco email_security_appliance < 14.2.1-020 Yes
Application cisco email_security_appliance < 14.3.0-032 Yes
Application cisco secure_email_and_web_manager < 12.8.1-021 Yes
Application cisco secure_email_and_web_manager < 13.8.1-108 Yes
Application cisco secure_email_and_web_manager < 14.2.0-224 Yes
Application cisco secure_email_and_web_manager < 14.3.0-120 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For cisco's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.