CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-20266 — Cisco Emergency Responder security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2

A vulnerability in Cisco Emergency Responder, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (Unified CM), Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (Unified CM SME), and Cisco Unity Connection could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate privileges to root on an affected device. This vulnerability exists because the application does not properly restrict the files that are being used for upgrades. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by providing a crafted upgrade file. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid platform administrator credentials on an affected device.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (3.1)
Published
2023-08-30
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-347, CWE-269

Affected products

  • cisco / emergency_responder / 12.5.1su4
  • cisco / emergency_responder / 12.5.1su8a
  • cisco / emergency_responder / 14su3
  • cisco / unified_communications_manager / 12.5.1su8
  • cisco / unity_connection / 12.5(1)su6
  • cisco / unity_connection / 12.5(1)su7

Showing 6 representative product identities from 10 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

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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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