CVE-2022-20759

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software and Firepower Threat Defense Software Web Services Interface Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

HIGH
8.8
CVSS Score
Published: May 3, 2022 at 03:15 AM UTC
Updated: August 11, 2026 at 07:37 PM UTC
2 products affected across 1 vendorAdaptive Security ApplianceSecure Firewall Threat Defense

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Severity
HIGH8.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 29%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

A vulnerability in the web services interface for remote access VPN features of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an authenticated, but unprivileged, remote attacker to elevate privileges to level 15. This vulnerability is due to improper separation of authentication and authorization scopes. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTPS messages to the web services interface of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to gain privilege level 15 access to the web management interface of the device. This includes privilege level 15 access to the device using management tools like the Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) or the Cisco Security Manager (CSM). Note: With Cisco FTD Software, the impact is lower than the CVSS score suggests because the affected web management interface allows for read access only.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 9.12.4.389.13.0 ≤ v < 9.14.49.15.0 ≤ v < 9.15.1.219.16.0 ≤ v < 9.16.2.149.17.0 ≤ v < 9.17.1.7
Affected range stops below 9.12.4.38, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.14.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.15.1.21, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.16.2.14, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 9.17.1.7, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 6.4.0.156.5.0 ≤ v < 6.6.5.26.7.0 ≤ v < 7.0.27.1.0

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.8HIGHcisco
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-266CWE-269

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