Zero-day vulnerability in Cisco IOS XE

Improper Privilege Management
CVE-2023-20198

Vulnerability details

Advisory: SB2023101701 - Multiple vulnerabilities in Cisco IOS XE Web UI software

Vulnerable component: Cisco IOS XE

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-20198

CVSSv3 score: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:H/RL:O/RC:C

CWE-ID: CWE-269 - Improper Privilege Management

Description:

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to compromise the affected system.

The vulnerability exists due to improper privilege management in the web UI feature. A remote non-authenticated attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP request to the affected device and create an account with privilege level 15 access.

Note, the vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.

External links:

https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-iosxe-webui-privesc-j22SaA4z

About zero-day vulnerabilities

Zero-day vulnerability is an undisclosed vulnerability in software that hackers can exploit to compromise computer programs, gain unauthorized access to sensitive data, penetrate networks, etc. We consider vulnerability a zero-day when there is no solution provided from software vendor and the vulnerability is being actively exploited by malicious actors.

Zero-day candidate is a potential zero-day vulnerability in software which might have been used in targeted attacks, however there is no evidence to support this suggestion.