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.
This vulnerability carries a CRITICAL severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 10.0, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 5 products from rockwellautomation, from rockwellautomation, from rockwellautomation and 2 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.
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.
2023-10-16T16:15:10.023
2025-10-28T13:59:32.787
Analyzed
CVSSv3.1: 10.0 (CRITICAL)
| Type | Vendor | Product | Version/Range | Vulnerable? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | rockwellautomation | allen-bradley_stratix_5200_firmware | < 17.12.02 | Yes |
| Hardware | rockwellautomation | allen-bradley_stratix_5200 | - | No |
| Operating System | rockwellautomation | allen-bradley_stratix_5800_firmware | < 17.12.02 | Yes |
| Hardware | rockwellautomation | allen-bradley_stratix_5800 | - | No |
| Operating System | cisco | ios_xe | < 16.12.10a | Yes |
| Operating System | cisco | ios_xe | < 17.3.8a | Yes |
| Operating System | cisco | ios_xe | < 17.6.6a | Yes |
| Operating System | cisco | ios_xe | < 17.9.4a | Yes |
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 rockwellautomation'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.