CVE-2023-20166

Path Traversal in Cisco Identity Services Engine 3.2

Path Traversal

Published

18 May 2023

Modified

21 November 2024

Patch / advisory

View advisory

CVSS Score v3.1 6.0

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS Score 0.0022 12th percentile

Risk Priority 44 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-2023-20166 is a medium-severity Path Traversal: '../filedir' (CWE-24) vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine. Its CVSS base score is 6.0 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked at the 12th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24345

Vulnerability Data

Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an authenticated attacker to perform path traversal attacks on the underlying operating system to either elevate privileges to root or read arbitrary files. To exploit these vulnerabilities, an attacker must…

have valid Administrator credentials on the affected device. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.

CWE(s): CWE-24 CWE-22

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control

Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.

attack.mitre.org →

T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control

Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access

Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…

attack.mitre.org →

T1005 Data from Local System Collection

Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-20167Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2024-20532Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2026-20180Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2024-20527Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2024-20528Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2024-20529Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2023-20077Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2023-20087Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2026-20181Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

CVE-2026-20148Same product: Cisco Identity Services Engine

Affected Assets

cisco

identity services engine

3.2

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent

Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect

Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden

Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate

Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

V5.3.2

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.

SI-10 Information Input Validation

addresses: CWE-22

Validates pathnames and filenames to prevent traversal outside intended directories.

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.PS-02 partial match

blocks

Patching/maintenance can remediate known path-traversal flaws in deployed software (partial prevention of exploitability) but does nothing to stop the coding defect from being introduced in the first place.

PR.PS-06 partial match

blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and path sanitization that prevent ../ traversal.

PR.AA-05 none match

blocks

PR.AA-05 defines and reviews access policies but does not address code-level pathname neutralization, so neither direction prevents CWE-22.

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match

removes

A.5.15 Access control partial match

removes

A.5.16 Identity management partial match

removes

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match

removes

A.5.18 Access rights partial match

removes

A.8.10 Information deletion partial match

removes