CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-20252 — Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

A vulnerability in the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) APIs of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to gain unauthorized access to the application as an arbitrary user. This vulnerability is due to improper authentication checks for SAML APIs. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending requests directly to the SAML API. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to generate an authorization token sufficient to gain access to the application.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.1)
Published
2023-09-27
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-862, CWE-287

Affected products

  • cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 20.9.3.2
  • cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 20.11.1.2

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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