CVE-2023-20009
A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.
- Published2023-03-01
- Fixed in14.3.0-032 · 14.2.1-020 · 13.5.4-038 · 13.0.5-007 · 12.5.3-041
- WeaknessCWE-20 · CWE-434
Am I affected?
Debian, Ubuntu or Red Hat sometimes backport a fix without changing the upstream version number: such a version reads « to verify », never « affected ».With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.
Description
A vulnerability in the Web UI and administrative CLI of the Cisco Secure Email Gateway (ESA) and Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager (SMA) could allow an authenticated remote attacker and or authenticated local attacker to escalate their privilege level and gain root access. The attacker has to have a valid user credential with at least a [[privilege of operator - validate actual name]]. The vulnerability is due to the processing of a specially crafted SNMP configuration file. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the targeted device and uploading a specially crafted SNMP configuration file that when uploaded could allow for the execution of commands as root. An exploit could allow the attacker to gain root access on the device.
Timeline
dates in UTC- 2023-03-0108:15CVE publishedNVD
- 2026-10-2319:23First public proof of conceptPoC-in-GitHub
Observed activity
isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTCBlock these indicators
- Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-20009?format=txt
- CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-20009?format=csv
- TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
- The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.
Versions per branch
NVD| Branch | Affected | Fixed in | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.3 | ≥ 14.3.0, < 14.3.0-032 | 14.3.0-032 | NVD |
| 14.x | ≥ 14.0.0, < 14.2.1-020 | 14.2.1-020 | NVD |
| 13.5 | ≥ 13.5.0, < 13.5.4-038 | 13.5.4-038 | NVD |
| 13.0 | ≥ 13.0.0, < 13.0.5-007 | 13.0.5-007 | NVD |
| 12.5 | < 12.5.3-041 | 12.5.3-041 | NVD |
| Branch | Affected | Fixed in | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14.3 | ≥ 14.3.0, < 14.3.0-120 | 14.3.0-120 | NVD |
| 14.x | ≥ 14.0.0, < 14.2.0-224 | 14.2.0-224 | NVD |
| 13.8 | ≥ 13.8.0, < 13.8.1-108 | 13.8.1-108 | NVD |
| 12.8 | < 12.8.1-021 | 12.8.1-021 | NVD |
as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.
Fix
- Update Cisco email security appliance to 14.3.0-032 · 14.2.1-020 · 13.5.4-038 · 13.0.5-007 · 12.5.3-041
Advisories and patches
- sec.cloudapps.cisco.comVendor Advisory
Detection
read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC- Nuclei template
- none so far ProjectDiscovery
- Exploit-DB
- no entry Exploit-DB
Sources
- CNACVSS 3.16.5read 2026-10-23
- NVDCVSS 3.17.2read 2026-10-23
- CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-20read 2026-10-23
- NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-434read 2026-10-23
- FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.3 %2026-10-23
- PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept1read 2026-10-23
Technical details
- CVSS v3 Vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Published
- 2023-03-01
- Last Modified
- 2026-06-17
- NVD status
- Modified
Frequently asked questions
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Related vulnerabilities
Same product first, then the same vendor advisory and the same publication week.