Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-20341

XSS in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software 9.12.1 … 9.8.4.8

XSS
Published
23 October 2024
Modified
11 August 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0042 35th percentile
Risk Priority 46 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-20341 is a medium-severity Basic XSS (CWE-80) vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Browser Session Hijacking (T1185); ranked at the 35th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the VPN web client services feature of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against a browser that…

more

is accessing an affected device. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input to application endpoints. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user to follow a link designed to submit malicious input to the affected application. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary HTML or script code in the browser in the context of the web services page.

CWE(s)
CWE-80CWE-79

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1185 Browser Session Hijacking Collection
Adversaries may take advantage of security vulnerabilities and inherent functionality in browser software to change content, modify user-behaviors, and intercept information as part of various browser session hijacking techniques.
attack.mitre.org →
T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie Credential Access
An adversary may steal web application or service session cookies and use them to gain access to web applications or Internet services as an authenticated user without needing credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1659 Content Injection Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access and continuously communicate with victims by injecting malicious content into systems through online network traffic.
attack.mitre.org →
T1189 Drive-by Compromise Initial Access
Adversaries may gain access to a system through a user visiting a website over the normal course of browsing.
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 →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2020-3580Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20070Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2024-20382Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2014-2120Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2023-20257Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20228Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20181Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20222Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2024-20460Same vendor: Cisco
CVE-2023-20179Same vendor: Cisco

Affected Assets

cisco
adaptive security appliance software
9.12.1, 9.12.1.2, 9.12.1.3, 9.12.2, 9.12.2.1
cisco
secure firewall threat defense
6.2.3, 6.2.3.1, 6.2.3.10, 6.2.3.11, 6.2.3.12

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)
  • V1.1.2
  • V1.3.2
  • V1.2.1
  • V1.3.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect neutralization of script tags through targeted XSS test cases.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Input validation explicitly requires checking and neutralizing untrusted web inputs containing script-related characters before they reach a downstream renderer.

SI-15 Information Output Filtering good match

Output filtering can catch or sanitize unneutralized script content before it is served to users.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure engineering principles include mandatory output encoding and neutralization of HTML metacharacters to stop injection at the source.

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-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require output encoding and input validation that prevent basic XSS.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Patching and EOL replacement can remediate known XSS instances in libraries or frameworks (partial) but do nothing to enforce input neutralization in application code (none).

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.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches unneutralized script tags before release.

A.5.6 Contact with special interest groups partial match
prevents

Knowledge exchange on emerging attack techniques and patches reduces the likelihood that cross-site scripting flaws remain unaddressed in deployed applications.

A.5.7 Threat intelligence partial match
prevents

Operational indicators of compromise for web-application attacks can be incorporated into WAF or input-filtering rules, lowering the likelihood that unsanitized data reaches the browser.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and output encoding that directly prevent basic XSS.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements explicitly call for neutralization of script-related HTML tags.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards require proper escaping of <, >, & to block XSS.

References