CVE-2023-20159
Published: 18 May 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-20159 is a high-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Cisco Business 250-16P-2G Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.6 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 15.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
Multiple vulnerabilities in the web-based user interface of certain Cisco Small Business Series Switches stem from improper validation of incoming requests. Tracked as CVE-2023-20159 and assigned a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.6, the issues are also associated with CWE-120 and can affect device availability or integrity when triggered over the network.
An unauthenticated remote attacker can send specially crafted requests to the web interface, resulting in either a denial-of-service condition or the execution of arbitrary code with root privileges on the affected switch.
The Cisco Security Advisory at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-sg-web-multi-S9g4Nkgv details the affected products and recommended mitigation steps, including software updates where available.
The EPSS probability for this CVE rose from lower values to a peak of 0.0531 on 2026-05-31 before receding to the current score of 0.0213.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24338
Vulnerability details
Multiple vulnerabilities in the web-based user interface of certain Cisco Small Business Series Switches could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition or execute arbitrary code with root privileges on an affected device. These…
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vulnerabilities are due to improper validation of requests that are sent to the web interface. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
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.
Platform-independent managed code eliminates the need for unchecked native buffer copies that are the root cause of classic buffer overflows.