CVE-2023-20198criticalunder attackCWE-420

CVE-2023-20198: critical vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE Software

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100Vexday Risk Score

Patch now. It under exploitation confirmed by CISA and has a working public exploit.

ssvc Actcvss 10epss 100%
from disclosure to weaponsame day
Published on NVDOct 16
1st PoCApr 19
metasploitOct 16
CISA KEVOct 16
Action required by CISAfederal deadline: 2023-10-20

Verify that instances of Cisco IOS XE Web UI are in compliance with BOD 23-02 and apply mitigations per vendor instructions. For affected products (Cisco IOS XE Web UI exposed to the internet or to untrusted networks), follow vendor instructions to determine if a system may have been compromised and immediately report positive findings to CISA.

In short

A critical vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE's web interface allows attackers to gain unauthorized access without authentication and execute commands with high privileges. This flaw is actively exploited in the wild to create malicious user accounts and install persistent backdoors on network devices.

Technical detail

CVE-2023-20198 is an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in the Cisco IOS XE web UI that permits attackers to execute privilege level 15 commands without prior authentication. The vulnerability is exploited in conjunction with CVE-2023-20273 to achieve privilege escalation to root and persistent implant installation on affected devices.

Summary generated and translated by AI from the official description.

The full analysis of this CVE is available in Portuguese →

Cisco is providing an update for the ongoing investigation into observed exploitation of the web UI feature in Cisco IOS XE Software. We are updating the list of fixed releases and adding the Software Checker. Our investigation has determined that the actors exploited two previously unknown issues. The attacker first exploited CVE-2023-20198 to gain initial access and issued a privilege 15 command to create a local user and password combination. This allowed the user to log in with normal user access. The attacker then exploited another component of the web UI feature, leveraging the new local user to elevate privilege to root and write the implant to the file system. Cisco has assigned CVE-2023-20273 to this issue. CVE-2023-20198 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 10.0. CVE-2023-20273 has been assigned a CVSS Score of 7.2. Both of these CVEs are being tracked by CSCwh87343.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
Cisco · Cisco IOS XE Software
public PoCs found — 47
githubgithub.com/smokeintheshell/CVE-2023-20198★ 64githubgithub.com/W01fh4cker/CVE-2023-20198-RCE★ 42githubgithub.com/fox-it/cisco-ios-xe-implant-detection★ 41githubgithub.com/Shadow0ps/CVE-2023-20198-Scanner★ 33githubgithub.com/ZephrFish/CVE-2023-20198-Checker★ 33githubgithub.com/Atea-Redteam/CVE-2023-20198★ 20githubgithub.com/Tounsi007/CVE-2023-20198★ 11githubgithub.com/Pushkarup/CVE-2023-20198★ 8githubgithub.com/RevoltSecurities/CVE-2023-20198★ 7githubgithub.com/iveresk/cve-2023-20198★ 6githubgithub.com/sohaibeb/CVE-2023-20198★ 4githubgithub.com/G4sul1n/Cisco-IOS-XE-CVE-2023-20198★ 3githubgithub.com/Vulnmachines/Cisco_CVE-2023-20198★ 2githubgithub.com/alekos3/CVE_2023_20198_Detector★ 2githubgithub.com/mr-r3b00t/CVE-2023-20198-IOS-XE-Scanner★ 2githubgithub.com/IceBreakerCode/CVE-2023-20198★ 1githubgithub.com/securityphoenix/cisco-CVE-2023-20198-tester★ 1githubgithub.com/emomeni/Simple-Ansible-for-CVE-2023-20198★ 1githubgithub.com/kacem-expereo/CVE-2023-20198★ 1githubgithub.com/djayaGit/cve-2023-20198-poc-cisco★ 1githubgithub.com/ohlawd/CVE-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/netbell/CVE-2023-20198-Fix★ 0githubgithub.com/reket99/Cisco_CVE-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/JoyGhoshs/CVE-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/sanan2004/CVE-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/AhmedMansour93/Event-ID-193-Rule-Name-SOC231-Cisco-IOS-XE-Web-UI-ZeroDay-CVE-2023-20198-★ 0githubgithub.com/raystr-atearedteam/CVE-2023-20198-checker★ 0githubgithub.com/DOMINIC471/qub-network-security-cve-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/Arshit01/CVE-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/Religan/CVE-2023-20198★ 0githubgithub.com/Gill-Singh-A/CVE-2023-20198-Exploit★ 0githubgithub.com/gustavorobertux/cisco-cve-2023-20198-checker★ 0githubgithub.com/telly251/forwardnetworksdemo★ 0vulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/a0a0822430afunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/7cec6c4757e7unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/d7c1f4c82bb7unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/776fa8a7922cunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/1281b61abcb0unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/5ddefc8f6c3aunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/6628d3a046f1unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/cb1d7c5a8232unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/5982ccedfe2bunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/dd7c031f8763unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/ff6ce06a2c5aunverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/a1e84c04d078unverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/71907c9e119funverifiedvulncheckvulncheck.com/xdb/d0713c585242unverified
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