Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2023-20243


A vulnerability in the RADIUS message processing feature of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause the affected system to stop processing RADIUS packets. This vulnerability is due to improper handling of certain RADIUS accounting requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted authentication request to a network access device (NAD) that uses Cisco ISE for authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA). This would eventually result in the NAD sending a RADIUS accounting request packet to Cisco ISE. An attacker could also exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted RADIUS accounting request packet to Cisco ISE directly if the RADIUS shared secret is known. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the RADIUS process to unexpectedly restart, resulting in authentication or authorization timeouts and denying legitimate users access to the network or service. Clients already authenticated to the network would not be affected. Note: To recover the ability to process RADIUS packets, a manual restart of the affected Policy Service Node (PSN) may be required. For more information, see the Details ["#details"] section of this advisory.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.6, 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 and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product 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

2023-09-06T18:15:08.133

Last Modified

2024-11-21T07:40:58.630

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 8.6 (HIGH)

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-399
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-755

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.2 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.2 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.2 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.