CVE-2023-20046
No exploitation reported by the sources we read.
- Published2023-05-09
- Fixed in21.28.3 · 21.27.6 · 21.26.17 · 21.25.15 · 21.23.31 · 21.22.14
- WeaknessCWE-289 · CWE-522
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 key-based SSH authentication feature of Cisco StarOS Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied credentials. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a valid low-privileged SSH key to an affected device from a host that has an IP address that is configured as the source for a high-privileged user account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to log in to the affected device through SSH as a high-privileged user. There are workarounds that address this vulnerability.
Timeline
dates in UTC- 2023-05-0918:15CVE publishedNVD
Observed activity
isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-25 15:37 UTCBlock these indicators
- Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-20046?format=txt
- CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2023-20046?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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21.28 | ≥ 21.28.0, < 21.28.3 | 21.28.3 | NVD |
| 21.27 | ≥ 21.27.0, < 21.27.6 | 21.27.6 | NVD |
| 21.26 | ≥ 21.26.0, < 21.26.17 | 21.26.17 | NVD |
| 21.25 | ≥ 21.25.0, < 21.25.15 | 21.25.15 | NVD |
| 21.23 | ≥ 21.23.0, < 21.23.31 | 21.23.31 | NVD |
| 21.22 | < 21.22.14 | 21.22.14 | NVD |
| 21.23 | = 21.23.n | no fix published | NVD |
| 21.24 | = 21.24 | no fix published | NVD |
| 21.27 | = 21.27.m | no fix published | NVD |
| 21.28 | = 21.28.m | no fix published | NVD |
as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.
Fix
- Update Cisco staros to 21.28.3 · 21.27.6 · 21.26.17 · 21.25.15 · 21.23.31 · 21.22.14
Advisories and patches
- sec.cloudapps.cisco.comVendor Advisory
Detection
- Nuclei template
- none so far ProjectDiscovery
- Exploit-DB
- no entry Exploit-DB
- Proof-of-concept repositories
- none listed PoC-in-GitHub
Sources
- CNACVSS 3.18.8read 2026-10-23
- NVDCVSS 3.18.8read 2026-10-23
- CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-289read 2026-10-23
- NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-522read 2026-10-23
- FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.6 %2026-10-25
Technical details
- CVSS v3 Vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Published
- 2023-05-09
- Last Modified
- 2026-06-17
- NVD status
- Modified
Frequently asked questions
What is CVE-2023-20046?
Is CVE-2023-20046 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2023-20046?
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