Security Resilience

CVE-2020-8193

Auth Bypass in Citrix Application Delivery Controller Firmware 10.5 – 10.5-70.18

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCAuth Bypass
Published
10 July 2020
Modified
30 October 2025
KEV Added
03 November 2021
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.88 99.8th percentile
Risk Priority 77 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-2020-8193 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Citrix Application Delivery Controller Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2020-8193 is an improper access control vulnerability, also referenced under CWE-284 and CWE-287, that affects Citrix ADC and Citrix Gateway versions prior to 13.0-58.30, 12.1-57.18, 12.0-63.21, 11.1-64.14, and 10.5-70.18, as well as Citrix SD-WAN WAN-OP versions prior to 11.1.1a, 11.0.3d, and 10.2.7. It permits unauthenticated access to specific URL endpoints on the affected appliances.

Remote unauthenticated attackers can exploit the flaw over the network without credentials or user interaction to read or modify limited data accessible through those endpoints. Public references describe related local file inclusion behavior that can be reached via the same access control weakness, producing a CVSS 6.5 impact focused on confidentiality and integrity.

Citrix advisory CTX276688 and associated patches address the issue by updating the listed product versions to enforce proper access controls on the affected endpoints. The vulnerability appears in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, confirming observed in-the-wild exploitation.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Improper access control in Citrix ADC and Citrix Gateway versions before 13.0-58.30, 12.1-57.18, 12.0-63.21, 11.1-64.14 and 10.5-70.18 and Citrix SDWAN WAN-OP versions before 11.1.1a, 11.0.3d and 10.2.7 allows unauthenticated access to certain URL endpoints.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
03 November 2021

Related Threats

Threat-Actor AttributionAI

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APT19 (G0073)
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AnonOps
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CVEs Like This One

CVE-2020-8196Same product: Citrix 4000-Woboth on KEV
CVE-2021-22941Same vendor: Citrixboth on KEV
CVE-2023-24489Same vendor: Citrixboth on KEV
CVE-2019-11634Same vendor: Citrixboth on KEV
CVE-2023-39349Same product class: VPN / SSL gateway
CVE-2023-24486Same vendor: Citrix
CVE-2023-47536Same product class: VPN / SSL gateway
CVE-2024-40586Same product class: VPN / SSL gateway
CVE-2023-33301Same product class: VPN / SSL gateway
CVE-2024-36505Same product class: VPN / SSL gateway

Affected Assets

citrix
application delivery controller firmware
10.5 — 10.5-70.18 · 11.1 — 11.1-64.14 · 12.0 — 12.0-63.21
citrix
netscaler gateway firmware
10.5 — 10.5-70.18 · 11.1 — 11.1-64.14 · 12.0 — 12.0-63.21
citrix
gateway firmware
13.0 — 13.0-58.30
citrix
sd-wan wanop
10.2 — 10.2.7 · 11.0 — 11.0.3d · 11.1 — 11.1.1a

Mitigating Controls

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-284 CWE-287

The awareness and training policy mandates training on access control practices, directly reducing the likelihood of improper access control weaknesses being introduced or exploited.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

Training covers access control policies and the consequences of improper access grants or usage by users.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

Security training teaches access control policies and enforcement, reducing improper access control implementations.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

Provides capability to review session content, directly detecting violations of access control.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

System audit review detects violations of access controls by identifying unauthorized access attempts.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

Control assessments verify that access controls are implemented correctly and operating as intended, detecting improper access control before exploitation.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

Requiring formal approval, documented controls, and responsibilities for inter-system exchanges directly enforces proper access control between systems.

addresses: CWE-284 CWE-287

Penetration testing simulates unauthorized access attempts, directly detecting and enabling remediation of improper access control weaknesses.

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.

blocks

A.5.1 only requires that an information security policy and topic-specific policies (including on access control) exist and are reviewed; it does not itself enforce, implement or act on any access restriction, so the weakness can still be exploited (per the owner's explicit rule that governance/dependency clauses score none on effect verbs).

blocks

A.5.15 directly mandates determining requirements, defining/implementing topic-specific access control policy+rules (with explicit references to 8.3, 5.16, 5.18), and enforcing authorized access while preventing unauthorized access, which squarely stops exploitation of most CWE-284 instances; the bounded remainder is the physical slice (explicitly delegated to 7.2-7.4) plus any second-order defects like path traversal that are not authorization decisions.

blocks

A.5.16's identity lifecycle (unique binding, timely disable/remove, no duplicates, oversight of shared/non-human) directly stops most improper access by ensuring the actor in an access decision is correctly identified and authorized; the bounded remainder is non-identity mechanisms in CWE-284 such as path traversal or CSRF that do not turn on actor identity at all.

blocks

A.5.17 directly mandates generation of non-guessable unique secrets, secure transmission, immediate change of defaults/temporary creds, strong password enforcement, no-reuse, and compromise response, which stops most improper-authentication exploits at source; the bounded remainder is non-password authentication methods and sufficiency-of-proof cases (e.g. IA-2/IA-5 enhancements) left to other controls.

blocks

A.5.18 directly governs the provisioning, review, adjustment and timely revocation of both physical and logical access rights per business rules, segregation of duties and risk-evaluated changes/terminations; this stops most unauthorized-actor exploitation paths named by CWE-284, with a bounded remainder (e.g. path-traversal or CSRF cases that are not authorization decisions at all)

blocks

A.5.2 defines and assigns roles/responsibilities for protection of information and risk acceptance; it does not itself enforce any access decision and cannot stop exploitation of improper access control (per the owner's labeling rule: governance/dependency clauses do not score on prevent/mitigate verbs)

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-284, a pillar-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-749, CWE-1220.
  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-287, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-295, CWE-306.

References