CVERadar
HIGH · CVSS 3.1 8.6CISA KEV · added 2025-09-25EPSS 87.09% (p100)Threat level 84

CVE-2025-20362: Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security (ASA) Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Missing Authorization Vulnerability

Cisco · Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance and Secure Firewall Threat Defense · NVD published 2025-09-25 · posted 2025-09-25 · last modified 2026-10-19

What it is

Update: On November 5, 2025, Cisco became aware of a new attack variant against devices running Cisco Secure ASA Software or Cisco Secure FTD Software releases that are affected by CVE-2025-20333 and CVE-2025-20362. This attack can cause unpatched devices to unexpectedly reload, leading to denial of service (DoS) conditions. Cisco strongly recommends that all customers upgrade to the fixed software releases that are listed in the Fixed Software ["#fs"] section of this advisory. A vulnerability in the VPN web server of Cisco Secure Firewall Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) Software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access restricted URL endpoints that are related to remote access VPN that should otherwise be inaccessible without authentication. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input in HTTP(S) requests. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTP requests to a targeted web server on a device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access a restricted URL without authentication.

WeaknessCWE-862
CVSS vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H (source: [email protected])
CISA due date2025-09-26 (for US federal agencies under BOD; a good deadline for everyone)
ATT&CK tacticsPrivilege Escalation → Impact

Exploitation evidence

First exploit evidence seen: 2025-09-25 (earliest date across the sources below).

Exploited in the wild

  • CISA KEV: listed since 2025-09-25. Source

Public exploit code

GitHub proof-of-concept repositories below quality bar

1 public repositories from 1 accounts, first seen 2026-05-16.

Verify before running: public PoCs can be malicious. Read the code and only run it in an isolated lab. A PoC means exploit code is public, not that this CVE is exploited in the wild.

Sources: CISA KEV · nomi-sec/PoC-in-GitHub.

Defend the Chain

The attack chain for CVE-2025-20362 laid across the MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise tactics. Solid cards come from the MITRE CTID KEV mappings; dashed cards are inferred by CVERadar from the CWE or description. Correct defences are real ATT&CK mitigations for that technique.

Threat level 84/100
Defender level 1 · 0 XP
Chain links broken: 0/2

Reconnaissance

Resource Development

Initial Access

Execution

Persistence

Privilege Escalation

Stealth

Defense Impairment

Credential Access

Discovery

Lateral Movement

Collection

Command and Control

Exfiltration

Impact

Pick a red technique card on the board, then choose the defence that stops it.

Defend against T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Inferred

Inferred from CWE CWE-862

How to fix it

CISA required action

The KEV due date refers to the deadline by which FCEB agencies are expected to review and begin implementing the guidance outlined in Emergency Directive (ED) 25-03 (URL listed below in Notes). Agencies must follow the mitigation steps provided by CISA (URL listed below in Notes) and vendor’s instructions (URL listed below in Notes). Adhere to the applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are not available. (source: CISA KEV)

Fixed versions

  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.12.4.72 or later (affected from 9.12)
  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.14.4.28 or later (affected from 9.14)
  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.16.4.85 or later (affected from 9.16)
  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.18.4.67 or later (affected from 9.17.0)
  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.20.4.10 or later (affected from 9.19)
  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.22.2.14 or later (affected from 9.22)
  • cisco adaptive security appliance software: upgrade to 9.23.1.19 or later (affected from 9.23)
  • cisco secure firewall threat defense: upgrade to 7.0.8.1 or later (affected from 7.0.0)
  • cisco secure firewall threat defense: upgrade to 7.2.10.2 or later (affected from 7.1.0)
  • cisco secure firewall threat defense: upgrade to 7.4.2.4 or later (affected from 7.3.0)
  • cisco secure firewall threat defense: upgrade to 7.6.2.1 or later (affected from 7.6.0)
  • cisco secure firewall threat defense: upgrade to 7.7.10.1 or later (affected from 7.7.0)

Derived from the NVD CPE configuration (versionEndExcluding / versionEndIncluding). Always confirm with the vendor advisory.

Vendor advisories and patches

MITRE ATT&CK mitigations for this chain

  • M1051 Update Software (for T1068) : Update software regularly by employing patch management for internal enterprise endpoints and servers.
  • M1050 Exploit Protection (for T1068) : Security applications that look for behavior used during exploitation such as Windows Defender Exploit Guard (WDEG) and the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) can be used to mitigate some exploitation behavior. Control flow integrity checking is another way to potentially identify and stop a software exploi
  • M1048 Application Isolation and Sandboxing (for T1068) : Make it difficult for adversaries to advance their operation through exploitation of undiscovered or unpatched vulnerabilities by using sandboxing. Other types of virtualization and application microsegmentation may also mitigate the impact of some types of exploitation. Risks of additional exploits and weaknesses in t
  • M1019 Threat Intelligence Program (for T1068) : Develop a robust cyber threat intelligence capability to determine what types and levels of threat may use software exploits and 0-days against a particular organization.
  • M1038 Execution Prevention (for T1068) : Consider blocking the execution of known vulnerable drivers that adversaries may exploit to execute code in kernel mode. Validate driver block rules in audit mode to ensure stability prior to production deployment.
  • M1037 Filter Network Traffic (for T1499) : Leverage services provided by Content Delivery Networks (CDN) or providers specializing in DoS mitigations to filter traffic upstream from services. Filter boundary traffic by blocking source addresses sourcing the attack, blocking ports that are being targeted, or blocking protocols being used for transport. To defend

Detection Generic guidance

  • Privilege Escalation: Alert on processes gaining SYSTEM/root unexpectedly, and on exploitation crashes of privileged services.
  • Impact: Monitor service availability, unexpected encryption activity and mass file changes.

Response checklist Generic guidance

  1. Inventory: find every instance of the affected product and version (include internet-facing and forgotten ones).
  2. Patch or mitigate per the vendor advisory; if you cannot patch, remove internet exposure or apply the vendor workaround.
  3. Assume compromise if the system was exposed before patching: hunt for the indicators in the advisory and review logs back to the disclosure date.
  4. Rotate credentials and secrets stored on or used by the affected system if compromise cannot be ruled out.

Sources