CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-20234 — Cisco Firepower Extensible Operating System security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco FXOS Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to create a file or overwrite any file on the filesystem of an affected device, including system files. The vulnerability occurs because there is no validation of parameters when a specific CLI command is used. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to an affected device and using the command at the CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to overwrite any file on the disk of the affected device, including system files. The attacker must have valid administrative credentials on the affected device to exploit this vulnerability.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-23
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-73, CWE-732

Affected products

  • cisco / firepower_extensible_operating_system

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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