CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-20359 — Cisco ASA and FTD Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6 CISA KEV

A vulnerability in a legacy capability that allowed for the preloading of VPN clients and plug-ins and that has been available in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to execute arbitrary code with root-level privileges. Administrator-level privileges are required to exploit this vulnerability. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of a file when it is read from system flash memory. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by copying a crafted file to the disk0: file system of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected device after the next reload of the device, which could alter system behavior. Because the injected code could persist across device reboots, Cisco has raised the Security Impact Rating (SIR) of this advisory from Medium to High.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6 (3.1)
Published
2024-04-24
CISA KEV
Known exploited
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-94

Affected products

  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software / 9.8.1
  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software / 9.8.1.5
  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software / 9.8.1.7
  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software / 9.8.2
  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software / 9.8.2.8
  • cisco / adaptive_security_appliance_software / 9.8.2.14

Showing 6 representative product identities from 267 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Command, code, expression, and template injection

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Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted values to process execution, interpreters, evaluators, template engines, dynamic imports, and administrative scripting features.
  • Determine whether the affected path is reachable across each trust boundary and which service account or host privilege it inherits.
  • Review configuration for optional execution features, unsafe compatibility modes, and shell invocation.

Remediate safely

  • Replace string-built commands or evaluated code with fixed operations and structured argument APIs that do not invoke a shell.
  • Use strict allowlists for operation identifiers and reject unexpected input before it reaches any interpreter.
  • Update the affected component and add inert regression tests covering metacharacters, encoding variants, and alternate request paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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