Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-20069

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense 6.4.0 – 7.0.9

Published
04 March 2026
Modified
11 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0027 19th percentile
Risk Priority 36 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-2026-20069 is a medium-severity HTTP Request/Response Smuggling (CWE-444) vulnerability in Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 19th 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-7 (Boundary Protection) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

A vulnerability in the VPN web services component of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct browser-based attacks against users of an affected…

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device. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of HTTP requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user to visit a website that is designed to pass malicious HTTP requests to a device that is running Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Software or Cisco Secure FTD Software and has web services endpoints supporting VPN features enabled. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to reflect malicious input from the affected device to the browser that is in use and conduct browser-based attacks, including cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. The attacker is not able to directly impact the affected device.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-20293Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2024-20268Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2023-20247Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20025Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2018-0101Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2024-20358Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2024-20408Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20049Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2023-20042Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software
CVE-2026-20102Same product: Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software

Affected Assets

cisco
secure firewall threat defense
6.4.0 — 7.0.9 · 7.1.0 — 7.2.11 · 7.3.0 — 7.4.3
cisco
adaptive security appliance software
9.12.1 — 9.16.4.85 · 9.17.1 — 9.18.4.66 · 9.19.1 — 9.20.4

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)
  • V4.1.3
  • V4.2.4
  • V1.5.3
  • V4.1.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Boundary protection at external interfaces can enforce consistent HTTP request/response parsing rules between intermediaries and endpoints.

Validating HTTP inputs at the intermediary prevents malformed messages from being interpreted inconsistently downstream.

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-01 mostly match
prevents

Configuration management can enforce uniform HTTP parsing rules across intermediaries, directly mitigating inconsistent interpretation.

DE.CM-01 partial match
prevents

Network monitoring can detect smuggling attempts via anomalous HTTP traffic or logs, while eliminating the inconsistency directly aids detection of such events.

PR.IR-01 partial match
prevents

Network protections can enforce consistent HTTP proxy/firewall behavior to block smuggling, and removing the weakness helps prevent unauthorized access via request smuggling.

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 HTTP request smuggling vulnerabilities in intermediary components.

degrades

Network security controls can enforce consistent HTTP parsing and proxy behavior that mitigates request smuggling.

degrades

Secure network services include hardening proxies and gateways against inconsistent HTTP interpretation.

prevents

Secure SDLC practices require threat modeling and testing for HTTP parsing inconsistencies in intermediaries.

prevents

Application security requirements can mandate strict HTTP message validation and canonicalization.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include consistent protocol handling and defense-in-depth for proxies.

References