CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2022-20737 — Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software security vulnerability

High CVSS 8.5

A vulnerability in the handler for HTTP authentication for resources accessed through the Clientless SSL VPN portal of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device or to obtain portions of process memory from an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient bounds checking when parsing specific HTTP authentication messages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious traffic to an affected device acting as a VPN Gateway. To send this malicious traffic, an attacker would need to control a web server that can be accessed through the Clientless SSL VPN portal. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to cause the device to reload, resulting in a DoS condition, or to retrieve bytes from the device process memory that may contain sensitive information.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.5 (3.1)
Published
2022-05-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-122, CWE-787

Affected products

  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software

Showing 1 representative product identities from 5 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

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Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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