CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2024-20510 — Cisco Ios Xe security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.3

A vulnerability in the Central Web Authentication (CWA) feature of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless Controllers could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to bypass the pre-authentication access control list (ACL), which could allow access to network resources before user authentication. This vulnerability is due to a logic error when activating the pre-authentication ACL that is received from the authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) server. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by connecting to a wireless network that is configured for CWA and sending traffic through an affected device that should be denied by the configured ACL before user authentication. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to bypass configured ACL protections on the affected device before the user authentication is completed, allowing the attacker to access trusted networks that the device might be protecting.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.3 (3.1)
Published
2024-09-25
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-863

Affected products

  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.1
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.1a
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.2
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.3
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.4
  • cisco / ios_xe / 16.3.5

Showing 6 representative product identities from 197 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

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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