CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-20320 — Cisco Ios Xr security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

A vulnerability in the SSH client feature of Cisco IOS XR Software for Cisco 8000 Series Routers and Cisco Network Convergence System (NCS) 540 Series and 5700 Series Routers could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of arguments that are included with the SSH client CLI command. An attacker with low-privileged access to an affected device could exploit this vulnerability by issuing a crafted SSH client command to the CLI. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate privileges to root on the affected device.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2024-03-13
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-266

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xr / 7.2.1
  • cisco / ios_xr / 7.2.2
  • cisco / ios_xr / 7.3.1
  • cisco / ios_xr / 7.3.2
  • cisco / ios_xr / 7.3.3
  • cisco / ios_xr / 7.3.5

Showing 6 representative product identities from 25 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

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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