Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-20217

LPE in Cisco Thousandeyes Enterprise Agent ≤ 0.230

LPE
Published
16 August 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0030 23th percentile
Risk Priority 42 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-20217 is a medium-severity Execution with Unnecessary Privileges (CWE-250) vulnerability in Cisco Thousandeyes Enterprise Agent. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 23th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco ThousandEyes Enterprise Agent, Virtual Appliance installation type, could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation by the operating system CLI.…

more

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by issuing certain commands using sudo. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view arbitrary files as root on the underlying operating system. The attacker must have valid credentials on the affected device.

CWE(s)
CWE-250NVD-CWE-noinfo

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1055 Process Injection Stealth
Adversaries may inject code into processes in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-20210Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2026-20017Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20478Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2025-20185Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20435Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20277Same product: Cisco Thousandeyes Enterprise Agent
CVE-2023-20224Same product: Cisco Thousandeyes Enterprise Agent
CVE-2024-20420Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2016-1287Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2017-6744Same vendor: Cisco

Affected Assets

cisco
thousandeyes enterprise agent
≤ 0.230
cisco
thousandeyes recorder
all versions

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 6 hardening rules · 6 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V10.2.3
  • V13.2.2

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.

AC-1 Policy and Procedures
addresses: CWE-250

Policy promotes least privilege by defining necessary privileges and management commitment to them.

AC-13 Supervision and Review — Access Control
addresses: CWE-250

Supervision detects and allows removal of unnecessary privileges that enable execution with excess rights.

AC-2 Account Management
addresses: CWE-250

Reviewing accounts for compliance, disabling/removing unneeded accounts, and aligning with termination processes prevents execution with unnecessary privileges.

AC-5 Separation of Duties
addresses: CWE-250

Separation of duties prevents any single user from holding all privileges needed to complete a critical task, directly reducing execution with unnecessary privileges.

AC-6 Least Privilege
addresses: CWE-250

Directly prevents execution with more privileges than needed for assigned tasks.

AT-3 Role-based Training
addresses: CWE-250

Role-based training on least privilege principles reduces the chance personnel assign or retain unnecessary privileges.

AU-6 Audit Record Review, Analysis, and Reporting
addresses: CWE-250

Analysis of audit records can identify execution with unnecessary privileges through unusual activity patterns.

CA-9 Internal System Connections
addresses: CWE-250

Automatic termination after a defined period eliminates unnecessary privileges from persistent connections.

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.AA-05 mostly match
prevents

PR.AA-05 directly enforces least privilege so largely eliminates CWE-250 at design time, yet the weakness can still arise from runtime escalation paths, third-party code, or misapplied role definitions outside this single control.

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.5.18 Access rights mostly match
prevents

Requiring explicit justification and time-limited grants discourages the routine allocation of unnecessary privileges that would otherwise allow execution with more rights than required.

A.8.18 Use of privileged utility programs mostly match
prevents

Restricting privileged utilities to the fewest trusted users and requiring explicit authorization directly stops developers or operators from embedding or invoking code that runs with unnecessary elevated rights.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights mostly match
prevents

Mandating separate non-privileged identities for routine work and restricting privileged accounts to administrative tasks reduces the chance that everyday operations run with unnecessary elevated rights.

A.8.9 Configuration management mostly match
prevents

The control explicitly calls for minimizing privileged identities and disabling unnecessary accounts, thereby reducing the number of processes that run with unnecessary privileges.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

The requirement to restrict privileged access and apply segregation of duties limits the number of processes or accounts that must run with elevated rights, lowering the impact of unnecessary privilege assignments.

A.5.3 Segregation of duties partial match
mitigates

Forcing distinct roles for initiating versus executing changes reduces the chance that an individual will run with unnecessary privileges to perform both steps.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Windows 10 (1 rule)
  • V-220712 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-250
Windows 11 (1 rule)
  • V-253269 Only accounts responsible for the administration of a system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-250
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
  • V-225007 Only administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system must have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-250
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
  • V-205746 Windows Server 2019 must only allow Administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-250
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
  • V-254428 Windows Server 2022 must only allow administrators responsible for the member server or standalone or nondomain-joined system to have Administrator rights on the system. prevents CWE-250

References