Security Resilience

CVE-2024-20350

Exposed Creds in Cisco Catalyst Center 1.0.0 … 2.3.7.4-airgap-mdnac

Exposed Creds
Published
25 September 2024
Modified
30 July 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0042 35th percentile
Risk Priority 60 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-2024-20350 is a high-severity Use of Hard-coded Cryptographic Key (CWE-321) vulnerability in Cisco Catalyst Center. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); 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 SC-12 (Cryptographic Key Establishment and Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A04:2025 Cryptographic Failures

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the SSH server of Cisco Catalyst Center, formerly Cisco DNA Center, could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to impersonate a Cisco Catalyst Center appliance. This vulnerability is due to the presence of a static SSH host key.…

more

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by performing a machine-in-the-middle attack on SSH connections, which could allow the attacker to intercept traffic between SSH clients and a Cisco Catalyst Center appliance. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to impersonate the affected appliance, inject commands into the terminal session, and steal valid user credentials.

CWE(s)
CWE-321

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control
Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
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 →
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 →
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-20059Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2025-20353Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2023-20184Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2023-20183Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2025-20210Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2025-20349Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2025-20223Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2024-20333Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2023-20182Same product: Cisco Catalyst Center
CVE-2024-20323Same vendor: Cisco

Affected Assets

cisco
catalyst center
1.0.0, 1.4.0.0, 2.1.1.0, 2.1.1.3, 2.1.2.0

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SC-12 Cryptographic Key Establishment and Management good match

Requiring cryptographic keys to be established and managed according to defined requirements prevents developers from embedding static unchangeable keys.

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.DS-01 partial match
blocks

Data-at-rest protection policies require proper key management and therefore discourage hard-coded keys.

PR.DS-02 partial match
blocks

Data-in-transit protection similarly depends on non-hard-coded keys for encryption.

PR.PS-01 partial match
blocks

Configuration baselines and reviews can prohibit hard-coded keys in deployed artifacts.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure-SDLC activities such as code review and secret scanning directly prevent embedding static keys.

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

References