CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2023-20261 — Cisco Catalyst Sd-Wan Manager security vulnerability
A vulnerability in the web UI of Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to retrieve arbitrary files from an affected system. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of parameters that are sent to the web UI. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager and issuing crafted requests using the web UI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain arbitrary files from the underlying Linux file system of an affected system. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must be an authenticated user.
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.5 (3.1)
- Published
- 2023-10-18
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- software/application
- Weaknesses
- CWE-284
Affected products
- cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 17.2.4
- cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 17.2.5
- cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 17.2.6
- cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 17.2.7
- cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 17.2.8
- cisco / catalyst_sd-wan_manager / 17.2.9
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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