CVE-2023-20209
Published: 16 August 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-20209 is a medium-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Cisco Telepresence Video Communication Server. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 2.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Expressway Series and Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) could allow an authenticated remote attacker to perform command injection. The issue stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied input and is tracked under CWE-94 and CWE-77. Successful exploitation yields a remote root shell on the affected device. The vulnerability carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 6.5.
An attacker with read-write privileges on the application can exploit the flaw by sending a crafted request to the management interface. This grants the ability to execute arbitrary commands and obtain root-level remote code execution on the appliance. The attack requires network access but no user interaction.
The Cisco Security Advisory at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-expressway-injection-X475EbTQ provides official mitigation guidance and patch information. The EPSS score reached a peak of 0.3804 with a current value of 0.3427.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-24388
Vulnerability details
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Expressway Series and Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker with read-write privileges on the application to perform a command injection attack that could result in…
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remote code execution on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request to the web-based management interface of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to establish a remote shell with root privileges.
- 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.
Makes persistent code injection into loaded programs impossible when the executable image itself resides on hardware-protected read-only media.
Dynamically generated code can be produced and executed inside the isolated chamber, preventing host compromise from code-injection payloads.
Validates inputs used in dynamic code generation to block injected directives.
Directly prevents execution of attacker-supplied code written into data memory regions.