CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-3503 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6

A vulnerability in the file system permissions of Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to obtain read and write access to critical configuration or system files. The vulnerability is due to insufficient file system permissions on an affected device. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by connecting to an affected device's guest shell, and accessing or modifying restricted files. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view or modify restricted information or configurations that are normally not accessible to system administrators.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6 (3.1)
Published
2020-09-24
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-284, CWE-732

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.12.1

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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