Security Resilience

CVE-2020-8196

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 4.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.26 98th percentile
Risk Priority 75 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-2020-8196 is a medium-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Citrix Application Delivery Controller Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 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-2020-8196 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. The flaw permits limited information disclosure and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 4.3 reflecting network attack vector, low complexity, and low privileges required.

Low-privileged authenticated users can exploit the issue over the network to obtain restricted information that should otherwise be inaccessible, as demonstrated by public proof-of-concept material describing local file inclusion behavior in the affected appliances.

Citrix advisory CTX276688 addresses the affected products and provides updated builds that resolve the access control weakness; organizations are advised to apply the listed version upgrades. The vulnerability is also catalogued by CISA among actively exploited issues, indicating confirmed real-world targeting of unpatched Citrix deployments.

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 resulting in limited information disclosure to low privileged users.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
03 November 2021

Related Threats

Threat-Actor AttributionAI

Microsoft Corp. (Salesforce / Slack engineer recruitment claims)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
APT1 (G0006)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
Deep Panda (G0009)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
APT3 (G0022)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
Winnti Group (G0044)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
menuPass (G0045)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
Leviathan (G0065)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
APT19 (G0073)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
APT41 (G0096)
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA
AnonOps
Potential for China Cyber Response to Heightened U.S.–China Tensions | CISA

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2020-8193Same 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