Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-20022

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software 9.12.1 … 9.23.1.7

Published
04 March 2026
Modified
11 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0019 9th 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-2026-20022 is a medium-severity Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset (CWE-823) vulnerability in Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software. Its CVSS base score is 6.1 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 9th 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 SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the OSPF protocol of Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Software and Cisco Secure FTD Software could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an affected device to reload unexpectedly, resulting in a DoS condition when OSPF canonicalization debug…

more

is enabled by using the command debug ip ospf canon. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation when processing OSPF LSU packets. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted unauthenticated OSPF packets. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to write to memory outside of the packet data, causing the device to reload, resulting in a DoS condition.

CWE(s)

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.
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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-20408Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20049Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2024-20494Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20100Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2024-20402Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2025-20333Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20024Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20025Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20023Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2025-20182Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software

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
6.4.0, 6.4.0.1, 6.4.0.10, 6.4.0.11, 6.4.0.12

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis and fuzzing) directly finds unsafe pointer arithmetic before deployment.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate safe pointer usage and compiler/runtime checks that stop the weakness from being introduced.

Security engineering principles can require bounds-checked pointer arithmetic or safe language constructs that structurally avoid out-of-range offsets.

Process isolation confines damage from invalid pointer offsets to a single address space, reducing overall impact.

Memory-protection controls limit the blast radius of an out-of-range pointer dereference without preventing or detecting the coding error itself.

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 bounds-checked pointer arithmetic and static analysis to prevent out-of-range offsets.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

SAST/DAST tools used for vulnerability identification can surface this class of coding defect.

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.

finds

Security testing can detect out-of-range pointer offsets before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and bounds checking that can prevent out-of-range pointer offsets.

prevents

Application security requirements include memory-safety rules that reduce pointer-offset errors.

degrades

Secure architecture principles promote safe pointer handling and memory layout controls.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and require bounds checks.

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-220726 Data Execution Prevention (DEP) must be configured to at least OptOut. prevents CWE-823

References