CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-3259 — Cisco ASA and FTD Information Disclosure Vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5 CISA KEV

A vulnerability in the web services interface of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to retrieve memory contents on an affected device, which could lead to the disclosure of confidential information. The vulnerability is due to a buffer tracking issue when the software parses invalid URLs that are requested from the web services interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted GET request to the web services interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to retrieve memory contents, which could lead to the disclosure of confidential information. Note: This vulnerability affects only specific AnyConnect and WebVPN configurations. For more information, see the Vulnerable Products section.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2020-05-06
CISA KEV
Known exploited
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-200

Affected products

  • cisco / firepower_threat_defense
  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software

Showing 2 representative product identities from 9 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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