CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-20186 — Cisco Ios security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.1

A vulnerability in the Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) feature of Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to bypass command authorization and copy files to or from the file system of an affected device using the Secure Copy Protocol (SCP). This vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of SCP commands in AAA command authorization checks. An attacker with valid credentials and level 15 privileges could exploit this vulnerability by using SCP to connect to an affected device from an external machine. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain or change the configuration of the affected device and put files on or retrieve files from the affected device.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.1 (3.1)
Published
2023-09-27
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-285

Affected products

  • cisco / ios / 12.2(58)ex
  • cisco / ios / 12.2(58)ey
  • cisco / ios / 12.2(58)ey1
  • cisco / ios / 12.2(58)ey2
  • cisco / ios / 12.2(58)ez
  • cisco / ios / 12.2(58)se

Showing 6 representative product identities from 996 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authorization bypass, IDOR, and cross-tenant access

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

Check exposure

  • Map object and action authorization checks across API, UI, batch, import/export, and background-job paths.
  • Identify tenant, ownership, role, and policy boundaries for affected resources and administrative operations.
  • Use synthetic fixtures to compare intended access matrices without accessing another user's real data.

Remediate safely

  • Enforce server-side authorization at each resource access and state transition using the authenticated principal and trusted tenant context.
  • Scope data queries by tenant and ownership; treat client-supplied identifiers, roles, and policy claims as untrusted.
  • Add deny-by-default policy tests for horizontal and vertical access across every affected transport.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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