Cyber Resilience

CVE-2020-3250

Cisco Ucs Director 6.0.0.0 … 6.7.3.0

Public PoCHigh EPSS
Published
15 April 2020
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.60 99.1th percentile
Risk Priority 97 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2020-3250 is a critical-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Cisco Ucs Director. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism (T1548); ranked in the top 0.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Multiple vulnerabilities in the REST API of Cisco UCS Director and Cisco UCS Director Express for Big Data may allow a remote attacker to bypass authentication or conduct directory traversal attacks on an affected device. For more information about these…

more

vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
T1134 Access Token Manipulation Stealth
Adversaries may modify access tokens to operate under a different user or system security context to perform actions and bypass access controls.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1548.001 Setuid and Setgid Privilege Escalation
An adversary may abuse configurations where an application has the setuid or setgid bits set in order to get code running in a different (and possibly more privileged) user’s context.
T1548.003 Sudo and Sudo Caching Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may perform sudo caching and/or use the sudoers file to elevate privileges.
T1036.001 Invalid Code Signature Stealth
Adversaries may attempt to mimic features of valid code signatures to increase the chance of deceiving a user, analyst, or tool.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2020-3243Same product: Cisco Ucs Director
CVE-2020-3251Same product: Cisco Ucs Director
CVE-2020-3248Same product: Cisco Ucs Director
CVE-2020-3239Same product: Cisco Ucs Director
CVE-2020-3247Same product: Cisco Ucs Director
CVE-2025-20282Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20374Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20274Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20346Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2026-20246Same vendor: Cisco

Affected Assets

cisco
ucs director
6.0.0.0, 6.0.0.1, 6.0.1.0, 6.0.1.1, 6.0.1.2
cisco
ucs director express for big data
≤ 3.7.3.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

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Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

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Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 9 hardening rules · 6 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

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Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-269

Policy addresses roles, responsibilities, and privilege management to prevent improper privilege assignments.

addresses: CWE-269

Access supervision ensures privileges are assigned and managed without improper escalation or retention.

addresses: CWE-269

Assigning group/role memberships and access authorizations (privileges) while reviewing accounts addresses improper privilege management.

addresses: CWE-269

Enforces proper privilege management by requiring all decisions through the verified reference monitor.

addresses: CWE-269

By mandating division of duties across roles, the control enforces proper privilege management and prevents a single entity from controlling an entire sensitive process.

addresses: CWE-269

Implements core proper privilege management by restricting to only required rights.

addresses: CWE-269

Policy requires training on privilege management and least privilege, making it harder to exploit improper privilege management weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-269

Training covers proper privilege management practices, making incorrect privilege assignments less likely.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-05 enforces least privilege/SoD and periodic reviews that directly remove most privilege-assignment defects, yet CWE-269 also covers escalation paths and role design outside a single access-management control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require and enforce input validation during development.

PR.AA-01 partial match
prevents

PR.AA-01 supplies credential/identity lifecycle support that can reduce some privilege-assignment errors but does not itself assign, modify, or check privileges, leaving most of CWE-269's risk unaddressed.

PR.PS-01 partial match
prevents

Config baselines and default reviews can enforce some privilege-related settings (one facet) but do not address code-level assignment/tracking logic that defines CWE-269.

PR.PS-05 partial match
prevents

PR.PS-05 can partially limit exploitability of some privilege issues via execution restrictions, but does not address the core design/implementation flaws of CWE-269 at all.

PR.DS-10 none match
prevents

PR.DS-10 protects data-in-use without touching privilege assignment/tracking, so it neither prevents CWE-269 nor removes more than one narrow facet of its risk.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

prevents

Requiring owner approval, segregation of duties, and periodic reviews prevents the assignment of excessive or unnecessary privileges to users or processes.

prevents

Enforcing minimum-necessary privileges, temporary grants, and separation of administrative versus normal identities prevents the over-assignment of rights that CWE-269 describes.

finds

Testing against a defined set of requirements and using code review plus vulnerability scanning forces validation of inputs and handling of unanticipated conditions, reducing the chance that malformed data will be accepted.

prevents

Dynamic techniques that grant the minimum necessary rights for a given time window and revoke them afterward reduce the window in which excessive or unnecessary privileges can be exploited.

prevents

Explicit restrictions on privileged access and segregation of duties limit the scope of privileges that can be assigned, reducing the chance that excessive or unnecessary privileges are granted to entities.

prevents

Defining and communicating authorization levels for each role limits the assignment of excessive or unnecessary privileges.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230265 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-20
Windows 10 (1 rule)
  • V-220712 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
  • V-225007 Only administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
  • V-205746 Windows Server 2019 must only allow Administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-269

References